South Chicago Flag Maker Sewing New Stanley Cup Banner For Blackhawks
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A local flag company has begun work on the latest Stanley Cup championship banner for the Chicago Blackhawks.
WGN Flag & Decorating Co., based in the South Chicago neighborhood, has been making banners for the Blackhawks and Bulls since they played in the old Chicago Stadium.
"When they opened the United Center in [1994], we redid all the banners for both the Bulls and Blackhawks, so they had the trophies on them. You know, made them up through the Bulls dynasty through the 90s, and now the Blackhawks dynasty of the 2000s," said owner Carl "Gus" Porter III.
The business started in 1916, when Porter's grandfather started making flags. Porter said technology has changed things a lot since then, but workers still sew the banners by hand, using patterns drawn by hand in the early 1990s.
"Every single aspect of those banners, every feather on the Blackhawks head, every detail, every letter, every piece is sewn on to fabric," he said.
Porter said the team's third Stanley Cup championship in six seasons – in to their multiple division and conference titles in recent years – means they'll have to figure out where to put all the banners in the United Center rafters.
"The Blackhawks kind of ran out of room in the United Center to hang banners. They're trying to internally figure out what they're going to remove, or how they're going to redesign the configuration, so they can hang more championship banners, and then of course get some room for even more," Porter said.
He said there is a lot of passion that goes into creating each banner, and fans like to watch.
"We get a lot of customers who are excited just to come in and maybe even get to see a little bit of work in progress on them. People have come in and touched it like it's the Stanley Cup," Porter said.
The new championship banner will be ready in two to three months, in time for the Blackhawks to hang it at the United Center at the start of the 2015-16 season.