Current Affairs Czech-born shoe magnate Thomas J. Baťa dies at 93
The famous Czech-born industrialist Thomas J. Baťa has died in Toronto, Canada, just a few weeks short of his 94th birthday. Mr Baťa was the former head of one of the world’s biggest footwear companies, first founded by his father in Zlín in Moravia in 1894. News of his death brought immediate reaction from around the world including in his native Czech Republic, which Mr Baťa visited often – the last time just this summer.
Thomas J. Baťa, photo: CTK
Thomas J. Baťa was born in Zlín on September 17, 1914, the son of Tomáš
Baťa, founder of the Baťa Shoe Company, which would later grow into an
empire: one of the biggest footwear companies in the world. But the Baťa
family, like many, was hit by the turmoil of the 20th century: the rise of
Nazism, the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia, and the Communist putsch in
1948. Thomas J. Baťa first escaped to Canada, where he served in the army;
later he returned to Czechoslovakia but only briefly. After the Communists
seized power, they nationalised countless major companies, including the
Baťas'. The facilities were then renamed, and the regime did its best to
ensure the Baťa name would be forgotten. It failed. The Baťa Shoe
Organisation continued abroad, eventually growing into a worldwide
powerhouse and household name.
Right up until shortly before his death Thomas J. Baťa continued to regularly visit the Czech Republic. On Tuesday I spoke to Erik Best, a Prague-based journalist, who knew him well and met with him on his last visit.
“There’s no doubt he loved the country and he delighted in coming here - his business did not require he come here as often as he came. He came many times simply because he wanted to, he enjoyed the people, and he enjoyed the reception here. And, he had great hopes for this country: his original business had been built by Czechs and he worked with them throughout the world. At the same time he realised that there had been a shift in the global balance to the east, and after all one of his biggest businesses was in India, so he had firsthand information about that as well.”
Photo: CTK
Would you say that he was a symbol for the Czechs, someone the president
described as having overcome great odds?
“Absolutely. Certainly from a business standpoint he was someone people
admired, I do myself. I personally do myself. I first heard about him as a
small child in Montana. We used to wear his tennis shoes we called the
Baťa bullets, the toughest tennis shoes I had ever worn. And Czechs
certainly do look up to him. I think that he is admired in part for what he
and his family achieved outside of the system, on their own and at the same
time as someone who did not forget his heritage. He came back to visit in
1990 or ‘91 and still spoke perfect Czech and that was quite an
impressive thing. I think the Baťa family will always be connected to
entrepreneurship and that the Czechs, when they put their mind to it, can
achieve things on a grand scale. I think that will be a tremendous
heritage.”
