Heritage Episode 06 - 06 - Returning to the source
1994
Bata celebrates its 100th
anniversary
100The Future
of Footwear
For more than 13 decades, Bata has been on the leading edge of footwear design. Today, professionals in Bata’s Shoe Innovation Centres around the world continue to dedicate themselves to discovering new shoe materials, developing advanced technologies, and creating fresh styles that blend fashion with comfort.
The Bata family recognition
and contribution
to the world.
Thomas J. Bata and his wife Sonja meet
Hillary Clinton in 2006
Named after the founder of the Bata Shoe
Organisation, Tomas Bata University was
established in Zlín in 2001.
Bata has a presence
in over 60 countries
and is honored to operate as a local company in every nation it serves.
A True "Glocal" Corporation
With over 5000 retail stores
dedicated ecommerce operations, and 24 company-owned factories,
Bata combines the best of global and local, effectively meeting the needs of consumers around the world.
FIRST International Award
for Responsible Capitalism
Thomas Bata receives the prestigious FIRST Lifetime Achievement Award for Responsible Capitalism in 2007.
Guinness
world records
Bata is recognized in 2004
by Guinness World Records as the World's Largest Shoe Manufacturer and Retailer.
Bata Relaunches 1936 classic
new Bata Tennis
To celebrate its 120th anniversary, the company released a special edition of the Bata Tennis – one of the best-selling shoes of all time – in 2015.
Bata Tennis pop-up store at
Selfridges, London
Limited edition
Bata Tennis x Comme des Garçons 2015
Collaboration
Bata tennis
comme des garçons
Japanese brand Comme des Garçons teams with Bata to reinvent its classic tennis shoe.
Toughees have walked
with children
for nearly 60 years
Originally created to meet the needs of South African school children – many of whom had to walk long distances to school – Toughees were soon in demand around the globe. Durable, handsome, affordable, and easy to care for, the podiatry-approved shoes quickly became part of the school outfit and are a fond memory for many throughout the world.
INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION
The Bata "Young Creator Award" was established to encourage young French designers. Winners get to have their shoes produced and sold by Bata.
The testament of Tomas Bata
The first condition for the thriving of our factory is that you don’t consider it as being only yours, only for you. Our factory was not built for the purpose of ensuring the existence of its founders. It was higher motives that caused us to suppress our own passions and whims if we saw them as harmful to the factory.
It was not only once that we were resolved to sacrifice our lives for the benefit of the factory and several members of our family have already made the sacrifice. One doesn’t do such things only to ensure property.
We saw the development and ensuring of welfare of our entire region as resting in the development of our factory.
It was our pride and motivation to further grueling work when we saw that our factory brings new, as yet unknown life into our region, that its general development increased the overall welfare and education of our people.
It was a desire to create, provide continuously and to an ever increasing number of people participation in benefits provided by our factory both to employees and customers.
"As long as you serve this great idea, you will be in harmony with both
natural and human principles"
The moment you start thinking only of yourselves, the moment you stop serving to the common good with your factory, you will become useless and fall inevitably.
Tomas BATA