Bata Corporation
footwear and fashion accessory company
The Bata Corporation (known as Bata, and in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, known as Baťa, Czech: [ˈbaca]) is a multinational footwear, apparel and fashion accessories manufacturer and retailer of Moravian (Czech) origin, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2017, the global marketing department moved to Prague to further centralize the company.
A family-owned business for over 125 years, the company is organized into three business units: Bata, Bata Industrials (safety shoes) and AW Lab (sports style). Bata is a portfolio company with more than 20 brands and labels, such as Bata, North Star, Power, Bubblegummers, sprint, Weinbrenner, Sandak, and Toughees. In 2004, the Guinness World Records named Bata the "Largest Shoe Seller and Manufacturer" of all time, as the company has sold over 14 billion pairs of shoes since its inception.
Origins and history
Foundation
The T. & A. Baťa Shoe Company was founded on 21 September 1894 in the Moravian town of Zlín, Austria-Hungary (today in the Czech Republic), by Tomáš Baťa, his brother Antonín and his sister Anna, whose family had been cobblers for generations. The company employed 10 full-time employees with a fixed work schedule and a regular weekly wage.
In the summer of 1895, Tomáš was facing financial difficulties. To overcome these setbacks, he decided to sew shoes from canvas instead of leather. This type of shoe became very popular and helped the company grow to 50 employees.
The public source identifies “Bata Corporation” as footwear and fashion accessory company. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bata, Corporation and footwear.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q688082. VIAF identifies the subject as 246290105. 3 of 8 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 2 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2017, 2004, 1894 and 1895.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bata Corporation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.