Respectance.com

Not all of have lives as rich and long as Thomas Bata had, and fewer still leave the kind of foot print behind that he did.  Thomas Bata rose from modest roots as an imigrant to Canada to being the president of one of the world’s largest shoe companies Bata Shoes.  He was the son of a 9th generation cobbler, so he came by the trade honestly.

I had the chance to go to the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada once a few years back.  A friend and I were visiting the city and she is a museum freak.  I have to say that I wasn’t too thrilled by the prospect of spending hours looking at shoes - that is until I got inside.  I’ve never seen anything like it since.  It was absolutely fantastic.  Shoes really are something that we take absolutely for granted, like they’ve always been around.  Well, they haven’t.  And how they came about is an amazing story.

I am really glad that Mr. Bata had the foresight to collect the shoes in the first place, and that he created a museum to them.  If you ever go to Toronto don’t miss the place.  It, like him, is remarkable.  You can read more about him on his online memorial.

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Posted by Todd Wilkinson

2 Sep