WOBURN, MASS. (WHDH) - Ever wonder how the Celtics’ championship banners are made?
Seamstresses at New England Flag and Banner in Woburn are creating the team’s 18th banner, which will eventually hang in TD Garden.
“We are very pleased to be doing a banner for them. Nothing could make us more excited,” said company owner Ned Flynn. “We all grew up around here, have been rabid Celtics fans since we were little, all the way through the different eras and the different teams.”
The business is one of the oldest companies in Massachusetts and has been handmaking flags since 1892.
The banner will go through several production phases before it’s ready to hang at the Garden. Each piece of fabric is stitched entirely by hand by individual seamstresses before being cut, lined, stretched, and ironed.
A key part of the production process is the not-so-secret tradition of sewing a penny into the label for good luck.
“So, for the Celtics, we will actually go to the bank, and we use Watertown Savings Bank, and we will get from them a shiny penny and put it inside,” Flynn said.
The company doesn’t make the championship banners just for the team — but for the fans, of course.
“On that night, whether you’re at the Garden or watching it on TV, the fans are going to stand up and cheer and every single time they go to that game, they’re going to look up and see ‘2024 World Champions’ and they are going to remember when they see that banner for years to come,” Flynn said.
Banner 18 will be raised to the rafters on next season’s opening night in October.
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