Czech Center New York will remember Tomáš Baťa, renowned Czechoslovak entrepreneur, who tragically passed away 90 years ago. The evening will feature a screening of the documentary “Tomáš Baťa I.”, accompanied by a display of photographs, illustrations, and documents mapping his contact within the US. A new book entitled Bata Across Continents will also be presented; it maps the Baťa company’s activities and the traces it left all around the world.
The event will be conducted in Czech.
Program
A screening of the documentary “Tomáš Baťa I: The Cobbler Who Conquered the World” (1993, 38 min)
The film presents the various stages in Tomáš Baťa's life and his shoemaking activities. The documentary draws from various sources: the memories of contemporary witnesses as well as original archived film material from the National Film Archives in Prague and several institutions in Zlín. The film was co-written and co-directed by Jaroslav Bařinka and Miloslav Kučera.
Photographs, illustrations, and documents
Baťa's versatile personality will be presented to the audience. Besides making and selling shoes all around the world, he also conducted his business activities in nearly 40 different locations. He was a respected figure of national industry in Czechoslovakia. For 9 years, he served as the mayor of Zlín and transformed it into a green city. He developed an original youth education system and played an important role in creating new city architecture. He also built his own industrial green cities in several European countries. He was frequently in contact with his American counterparts and founded several companies in the US after 1919. He was active on almost all continents.
Tomáš Baťa 90
Baťa was born in Zlín in 1876. Together with his two siblings, he founded a shoemaking company in the city in 1894. By introducing a successful model of linen shoes (1897), he gained countless new customers. The firm prospered and before WWI, it became one of the most important companies in the whole Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Soon after 1918, the Baťa factory became one of the biggest shoe companies in Czechoslovakia. In 1922, Baťa supported government policy aimed at strengthening the Czech crown. He reduced his shoe prices by 50%. This brought him even more new customers as well as market domination, and he became the number one Czechoslovak shoe manufacturer. He introduced a new ownership model based on employee participation in 1924, which brought extraordinary prosperity and success. A huge industrial area with 20 thousand employees grew at the edges of Zlín. Baťa started to be called the Czechoslovak Ford. His products were exported to the whole world and he was respected and even feared by his competitors. In 1931, he started opening shoe factories all across Europe and Asia. By 1932, he had sister companies, shops and factories in 56 countries and on four continents with 31 thousand employees.
As the mayor of Zlín, he reformed the public schooling system. He lowered local taxes, which resulted in an increased number of new entrepreneurs, turning Zlín into the regional hub of Eastern Moravia. He developed programs to cultivate social stability between owners and workers and he created a well-functioning model of a production company as well as city administration. He left his mark on Prague, Brno, and Zlín as a patron of culture.
Selfmademan Tomáš Baťa became the leading figure of the Czechoslovak industrial scene and public life and was considered the biggest exporter and taxpayer. As a global player, he was respected also within the global economy. He died in a freak accident when his airplane crashed at his local airport in Otrokovice on July 12th, 1932. His accomplishments were recognized by T. G. Masaryk, Karel Čapek, and Ludvík Vaculík.
