Baťa – shoemaker to the whole world

The founder of the world-famous shoe factory Tomáš Baťa created the largest shoe company, whose fame and commercial success significantly overreached our borders.

Bata Shoes is a large, family owned shoe company, which was founded in 1894 in Zlín by Tomáš Baťa whose family had been cobblers for generations. A large order from the army and rising demand for military shoes, during World War I started rapid growth and the small manufacture turned into modern industrial concern, one of the first mass producers of shoes.
Tomáš Baťa set up for example a flow production, separately accounting production units, a bonus system for workers or participation in profits. He built surprising social, cultural and educational program for staffs at that time.
Today the company employs nearly 60,000 employees in 60 countries. In its history the company has sold more than 14 billion pairs of shoes.

In Zlín you can visit:

Shoe Museum
The exhibition at Zlín’s Shoe Museum is housed in the entrance to the former shoe factory in the city centre. This is in fact a permanent display belonging to the Museum of South-East Moravia.
The largest part of the exhibition make collections from Baťa - from the foundation of the factory in 1894 until 1945, when the factory was nationalized.
The museum acquaints visitors with development of wearing shoes, namely from the oldest time period of the Czech history to present days. The oldest originals have dated from the end of the 16th century. There is also an unique collection of foreign nations shoes. An interesting thing of the museum is also a demonstration of the production process of shoes.

Bata's house with an exhibition Living in Baťa Zlin
You can look forward to panel exhibitions on Baťa housing, Baťa company's activities in Brazil and Baťa young women. Exhibitions are complemented by selected three-dimensional objects and advertising posters of Bata Shoes.
The Shoe Museum and Bata´s house organise The Day of museums on Tuesday 18th May 2010 and The Night at the Museum on Friday 21 May 2010 from 06.00 pm to 11.00 pm.

Villa of Tomáš Baťa
The house was built in years 1909-1911 and was very simple at that time. Tomáš Baťa wanted to build a nice residence for himself and his family, where he could relax and still see his factory. Interior and exterior of the villa were conformed to cosiness and functionality. The appearance of the building and its surrounding were formed by architects and builders of famous names: J. Kotera, F. Thomayaer, FL Gahura and V. Karfík. The interior is decorated with a wide range of architectural and art-craft elements.
The Foundation of Tomáš Baťa offers sightseeing tours of the villa with expert commentary on the life of T. Baťa and the history of the company and villa.