Shoemaking in Zlín: From a Manual Handcraft to a Factory Production

Abstract

Zlín has been centre of trade and handcraft since the Middle Ages and shoemakers had an important place here, as they were organised in a guild mentioned as early as in 1580. Importance of this trade grew and number of shoemakers increased from 52 in 1789 to 87 in 1880. The first shoe factory in Zlín was founded around 1870 by R. Florimont but was dissoluted after a couple of years. Later on, in September 1894, Antonín, Anna and Tomáš Baťa founded a shoemaking factory in Zlín. This factory was growing successfully under the management of Tomáš Baťa. Its shoes sold well even before the WWI but the greatest boom of the factory started in 1922. T. Baťa became a shoe-king, the biggest producer in Czechoslovakia, a businessman founding other factories in Europe and Asia and spreading his retail network almost all over the world. The Baťa factory in Zlín became during a period from 1923 to 1938 a trade and industrial giant including such activities as shoemaking, tanneries, mechanical engineering, chemical and rubber plants, transport, energetics, ect. In 1938 the Baťa factories had 65 000 people in Czechoslovakia as well as in many other countries in the world. As the factory developed, the town Zlín changed too. Its functionalistic architecture and omnipresent green of numerous parks and gardens changed Zlín into a modern green town. It had new schools, hospitals, culture clubs ect. The Museum of Shoemaking founded in 1931 became an original institution representing the Baťa Company containing a collection of historical and exotical footwear (Asia, America, Africa, Europe). In a new establishment (1959), this museum is open even today.