Stylish shoppers recently had a rare glimpse of global footwear brand Bata’s long history, authentic products, as well as its positive impact around the world in pop up shop of its Heritage Collection at SM Makati.
To celebrate its 120th Anniversary in 2014, Bata launched its Bata Heritage Collection to showcase heritage products from its vast archives of shoes that had a real impact in many countries. The collection has since toured the world, and for the Manila run, no less than Bata Heritage Director Charles Pignal, who is a great grandson of founder Tomas Bata attended the event to “share with Filipino customers Bata Heritage’s slightly different approach to Bata’s history, Bata’s values, Bata’s authenticity.”
The Bata Heritage Pop Up Shop in SM Makati showcased the classic Bata Tennis shoes from India and Bata Bullets sneakers from the USA, along with limited edition collaborations featuring Astroboy and Julien David. These are also heritage shoes with fascinating stories.
When founder Tomas Bata first travelled to India in 1929, he saw many people working barefoot and developed his life vision “to shoe mankind.” Bata opened its Batanagar factory near Calcutta in 1934 and first manufactured the Bata Tennis in 1936, a very affordable simple canvas shoe for school children to wear for their Physical Education classes. Over the decades, Bata has sold over half a billion pairs of Bata Tennis shoes in India across all walks of life. Bata Tennis is still proudly made 80 years later and contributes to Bata’s trusted reputation for quality, comfort, and value.
As part of the Bata tradition of making shoes adapted to local conditions, it was only fitting that in 1964, the Bata factory in Belcamp, Maryland, USA would make basketball sneakers for the local NBA team, the Baltimore Bullets. The Bata Bullets became so popular that Bata started making different Bullet lines across different sports like wrestling, soccer, and cycling before the shoes were discontinued in the mid-1970s. Long considered underground cult classics of the sneaker scene, the Bata Bullets got a re-launch for Spring/Summer 2016, a testament to the company’s rich history and enduring values.
A pioneer of innovative footwear for more than 120 years, global footwear brand Bata started in 1894 when a young Czech shoemaker named Tomas Bata decided to start his own shoe business in his hometown of Zlin. Along with his siblings Anna and Antonin, Tomas Bata decided that his mission was to provide comfortable shoes of great quality at affordable prices. In order to serve customers with such shoes, Tomas Bata constantly experimented with new manufacturing processes and techniques. As Tomas Bata developed a vision “to shoe mankind,” he built factory towns named “Batavilles” around the world.
Today, Bata has a presence in 70 countries, and operates over 5,000 international retail stores. The brand sells more than one million pairs of shoes a day. In the Philippines, Bata has stores in SM Megamall, SM City Bacoor, SM Makati and SM Mall of Asia. Bata is also available at the SM Stores.
Get connected with Bata through Bata Philippines on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at @BataPhilippines.