Thomas Bata Jr. was born on September 17, 1914, in Prague to Tomas and Marie Batova. Tomas Bata instilled in his son the sacred mission of providing shoes for people all over the world when he was a child and adolescent. He was raised and educated with the intent of carrying out this mission. His parents made certain that he combined education with learning about the world, so he spent time in England and Switzerland studying English, French, and German. These language skills were essential for his subsequent leadership of a global enterprise. In 1929, he enrolled in Bata‘s School of Work for Young Men in Zlin to learn the shoemaking trade from the ground up. Later, and for the rest of his life, he emphasised the impact of this teaching on him when he imagined himself as a shoemaker.
At the age of just seventeen, Thomas Bata Jr. was sent to Switzerland with other co-workers to establish a factory there. A year later, on July 12, 1932, his father planned to fly to Switzerland to see his son, but the plane crashed shortly after take-off crashed from the company airport in Otrokovice. Fortunately, after his father‘s death, he found a teacher in his step-uncle Jan and directors such as Dominik Cipera, Hugo Vavrecka and Frantisek Malota, who were close collaborators of his father.
Thomas Bata Jr. was given responsibility for the company‘s two largest stores, in Zlin and Zurich. Later, between 1935 and 1938, he was transferred to the firm‘s British branch in East Tilbury. At the age of 24, he took over the project to build a factory town in Canada. In 1939, he moved to North America together with 164 other Czechoslovaks, including eighty production and machinery specialists. The Canadian factory was established near Trenton, Ontario, and the company town that grew up around it soon became known as Batawa, a pun on Canada‘s capital, Ottawa.
In 1942, Thomas Bata Jr. became a Canadian citizen, joined the Canadian Army Reserves and achieved the rank of captain the following year.
Tomas Bata junior as a little boy (SOkA Zlín, o.č. 3071, p. č. 1)
Eight-year-old Tomas Bata junior (Bata family archive)
With his father during the May Day celebration (Bata family archive)
As a 14-year-old driver with his father (SOkA Zlín, o.č. 22, p. č. 2)
Thomas Bata Jr. remained thoroughly dedicated to the family business throughout his life. He saved it from disintegration after World War II when, as a result of the division of the world between the victorious powers, its mother ship in Czechoslovakia and other Bata companies in Central and Eastern Europe were nationalised. Under his leadership, the world‘s largest family business was not only saved, but also developed, becoming the world‘s largest shoe company.
It had a record 87,000 employees by 1980, and the number of shoes produced increased from 23 million pairs in 1945 to 220 million pairs in 1984. Thomas Bata Jr.‘s goal of selling 300 million pairs of shoes in Bata stores was not only fulfilled but exceeded in 1981.
Tomas Bata junior was sent by the British government on a mission to find additional supplies of rubber for war purposes, India 1944 (Bata family archive)
Maasai women welcome Mr. and Mrs. Bata, 1950s (Bata family archive)
Examination of leather quality, 1960s (Bata family archive)
At the machine with finished shoes, 1960s (Bata family archive)
In 1946, Thomas Bata Jr. married Sonja Wettstein, the daughter of George Wettstein, one of the most influential Swiss lawyers of the time. As a passionate pilot, he proposed to Sonja mid-flight over Switzerland. Two years after the wedding, the Bata family had their first child, Thomas George. Three daughters soon followed: Christine (1953), Monica (1955) and Rosemarie (1960).
With daughters Monica and Christine (Bata family archive)
Tomas junior and son Thomas George (Bata family archive)
In the family circle (Bata family archive)
With his wife, children and grandchildren, 1993 (Bata family archive)
Thomas Bata Jr. has received numerous awards and honours over the years, including honorary doctorates from various universities, as well as the rank of Colonel in the Canadian Army. In his second home, Canada, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the highest civilian honours that can be bestowed on a Canadian citizen.
With his wife Sonja, both holders of the military rank of colonel (Bata family archive)
The ceremony of handing over the highest Canadian award, the Order of Canada (Bata family archive)
Bata couple (Bata family archive)
Mother Teresa and the Bata couple, Calcutta 1984 (Bata family archive)
Thomas Bata Jr. had a long list of accomplishments by the end of the 1980s, but one more chapter needed to be added to his life story. He lived long enough to return to his homeland of Czechoslovakia following the Velvet Revolution on December 14, 1989. Subsequently, he and his wife Sonja were greeting tens of thousands of Zlin citizens welcoming them home, from the balcony of the Zlin town hall.
Thomas Bata Jr. was also active in educational and academic institutions. He was the driving force behind the inclusion of the Czech Republic and Slovakia into the OECD, invited Czech politicians to the international forum meeting in Davos, and served as a consultant to prominent businessmen, and institutions, including the United Nations. Under his direction, the Junior Achievement programme also expanded. He advocated for the establishment of the Tomas Bata University in Zlin, and established The Thomas Bata Foundation, which is located in his childhood home. He died at the age of 94 on September 1, 2008, in Toronto. He was active and energetic right up until the end.
Václav Havel and Tomas Bata junior, 1989 (Bata family archive)
Zlín welcomes Mr. and Mrs. Bata, 1989 (archive of the Bata family)
Tomas Bata junior and Mr. and Mrs. Havel (Bata family archive)
Tomas Bata junior with dulcimer music in Vyškovec na Kopanicích (Bata family archive)
