A Short History of Bata
A great proponent of modern technology, Tomas Bata was one of the first industrialists to travel by private airplane. In 1932, Tomas died in a plane accident. After some subsequent family feuds, the young Tomas Bata took leadership of the company, and during the second world war fled the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and moved the company to Canada, which eventually became its - and his family's - permanent home. From this period onwards, Tomas' wife Sonja was involved in maintaining the company's innovative design principles and also built up an important historical collection of shoes displayed in their own museums in Canada and Zlín.
