The T. & A. Baťa Shoe Company was founded in 1894 in Zlin, Moravia (now the Czech Republic), by siblings Tomáš, Antonin and Anne Baťa, descendants of a family of cobblers. What began as a small, family enterprise, expanded over the course of the century to over ninety countries to become the largest and, at times, the most successful shoe manufacturer and retailer in the world. Documentation related to all of the Bata Shoe Company’s innovations can be found in the Bata archive in the form of carefully kept administrative records, staff training manuals, financial files, and internal company memos.
Includes corporate files from the Canadian Bata Shoe Company (including correspondence; legal and financial records; product development, marketing and promotional files; technical and production-related files, and human resources files). The bulk of the material was created by the Canadian Bata company, however many records relate to several of the oraganization’s international outposts, including companies headed in Africa, India, Asia and Europe. The collection also includes press clippings and other publications about the Bata Company and its historical significance. There are also a small number of Bata family records, primarily for Thomas J. Bata (1914-2008), Sonja I. Bata, Tomáš Baťa (1876-1932) and Marie Bata.
Donated by Sonja Bata, 2014.