Bata Shoe Museum

The Bata Shoe Museum is a shoe museum in the Canadian city of Toronto. The museum was opened on 6 May 1995 relating to a building that is located on Bloor Street West at the corner of St. George Street in Downtown Toronto.

Museum building

The museum building in a shoebox design was designed in the style of deconstructivism from the Japanese- Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama. Since the opening of exhibitions on two floors several times a year presented. On the ground floor and basement are the permanent collection, lecture halls and a museum shop.

Foundation and Collection

1979 donated Sonja Bata, wife of CEOs Thomas J. Bata, considering its sprawling collection of shoes Bata Shoe Foundation as an international cultural and scientific center for shoe customer. From 1979 to 1985, the collection at the offices of Bata Limited was issued in Don - Milles - Toronto area. Between June 1992 and November 1994, the collection was housed in the portico of an office and retail complex in the Downtown. The collection was further supplemented and should be seen in its own museum building since 1995, includes more than 12,500 artifacts (Shoes and related objects) from over 4500 years of human history and from different cultures and regions. The Foundation also publishes academic journals on the topic of shoes.

The fundus contains, among other things, special shoes to mow the grass, cut trees, chop chestnuts, rice farmers, snow and ice, rafters, fishermen, knights, priests, smugglers, dancers, athletes, prisoners and the moon walk. In the shoe collection also find North American moccasins, prima ballerina shoes, Ferragamo creations, pressure-controlled rubber boots, overshoes, magic shoes, cowboy boots, accessories and shoe art, satin shoes of Queen Victoria, Elizabeth Taylor's evening sandals from kid leather, Elton John's rhinestone platform shoes, the Beatles boots, Nureyev's dancing shoes and the paint Lipper of Elvis Presley.