Celebrating 30 years
May 06, 1995 – May 06, 2025
Founded by Mrs. Sonja Bata, the Bata Shoe Museum first opened its doors on May 6th, 1995 with the mission to illuminate human history through footwear. A rare cultural gem, the Bata Shoe Museum began as a small personal collection that has since transformed into an internationally celebrated museum, caring for nearly 15,000 shoes and shoe-related artifacts spanning over 4,500 years. As we honour the legacy of our past, we also look to the future, affirming our commitment to education, preservation, and impactful storytelling through the lens of footwear. With an unwavering commitment to community, we look forward to celebrating with you and to creating new memories for decades to come.
Swiss-born Sonja Wettstein studied architecture before marrying Thomas Bata, head of the global shoe manufacturing and retail store, Bata Shoe Company. While traveling the world on shoe business, Mrs. Sonja Bata began collecting footwear artifacts, including from some of the earliest civilizations on Earth.
In 1979, when her private collection had outgrown its home, the Bata Shoe Foundation was formed to develop an international centre for footwear collection and research.
Communicating the central role of shoes in shaping the social and cultural evolution of humanity, the museum’s collection includes footwear from some of the earliest civilizations on earth including ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artifacts.
One of the most important aspects of the collection is a diverse array of Indigenous footwear belongings from across Turtle Island (North America) and the circumpolar regions spanning Canada, Russia, the United States, Finland, Sweden, and Norway.
Celebrity footwear, including this pair of Elton John’s platform boots acquired by the Museum in 1988, have become fan favourites over the years. Worn by Elton in the mid-1970s, it was said that he proclaimed, “My Dear, I wouldn’t have been seen dead in them on stage, I wore them shopping!”
Before the grand opening of our permanent space at 327 Bloor St. W., the Museum was located at The Colonnade (131 Bloor St. W.) from 1992-1995. Like our permanent space, we also had temporary exhibitions on display including In the Steps of our Ancestors.
Sonja Bata begins working with distinguished Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama who said “A museum housing the world’s most outstanding collection of shoes, helping it reveal human history and secrets hidden within the psyche, deserves to have a sense of permanence and be celebrated with passion and architectural clarity”.
Sonja Bata, alongside architect Raymond Moriyama, welcome visitors to the Opening Gala of the Bata Shoe Museum. Guests were encouraged to dress their best, accompanied by “extraordinary footwear”, and so they did.
May 6, 1995 marks the official ribbon cutting of the opening of the Bata Shoe Museum at 327 Bloor St. West. The ceremony included more than 10,000 shoes and shoe-related artifacts reflecting over 4,500 years of material culture. Founder Sonja Bata and Henry Jackman, the 25th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, cut the ribbon while visitors kicked off “Shoe Week” with a lively celebration.
The Museum opened with four exhibitions including the permanent exhibition All About Shoes, Inuit Boots: A Woman’s Art, The Gentle Step: 19th Century Women’s Shoes, and One, Two Buckle My Shoe: Illustrations from Contemporary Children’s Books About Shoes.
A rare velvet-covered platform chopine from 16th-century Italy is one of the great treasures of the museum’s fashion footwear collection, which spans the Italian Renaissance to the catwalks of today.
Edward Maeder joins the Museum as the first Director. A costume and textile historian, and former curator at esteemed institutions like the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, and Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts, Edward continued to lecture both locally and internationally while leading the Bata Shoe Museum.
Since opening, the Bata Shoe Museum’s 450 ft. street front window has been an iconic centerpiece at one of the most important intersections in Toronto. The first window design was created by Montreal-based design firm L’Atelier du Presse Citron. The Museum collaborated with Citron on several projects including the All About Shoes renovation in 2005, and the 10th and 20th anniversary logos.
The Bata Shoe Museum building wins the 1995 City of Toronto Urban Design of Excellence and was quoted by the Toronto Star as “One of the most sculptural pieces of architecture to have appeared around here in recent memory”.
Inspired by a recommendation from famed footwear designer Roger Vivier, the first traveling exhibition to visit the Bata Shoe Museum came from Musée de la chaussure in Romans, France titled Shoe Dreams: Designs by Andrea Pfister. After being on view at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, the exhibition came to Toronto where guests were honoured by a special appearance by Mr. Pfister himself.
Award-winning prop and window designer Tom McAneneny designs his first exhibition Shoe Dreams: Designs by Andrea Pfister. His work with the BSM extended to include Taming of the Shoe (1997), Rock n’ Sole (1997), Dance! (1997), The Perfect Pair (2002) and the holiday window display in 2000.
Sharon McDonald joins the Museum as the new Director. Previously, Sharon held high-level curatorial and leadership roles at the Metropolitan Toronto Police Museum and Discovery Centre and the Peterborough Centennial Museum and Archives.
Curated by the BSM in coordination with Dr. Jill Oakes and Dr. Rick Riewe, the opening of Spirit of Siberia welcomes the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Deputy Director of the Russian Museum of Ethnography, and several key researchers. The research untaken for this exhibition included an unforgettable week in Saint Petersburg shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed. Despite the complexities of the time, the Russian Museum of Ethnography lent to the exhibition. After it’s run in Toronto, the exhibition later traveled to the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa.
In honour of the NBA’s 50th anniversary, the Museum collaborated with the Toronto Raptors for the opening of Rock ‘n’ Sole, an exhibition featuring historical memorabilia and footwear on loan from legends such as Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Bob Lanier, Wilt Chamberlain, and Michael Jordan.
The Bata Shoe Museum is presented with its first GEMmy Award by the Midwest Travel Writers Association and Tom Boyd, Ontario Ministry of Tourism, for creating an “outstanding travel experience and a travel gem”.
Herbert and Beth Levine: An American Pair opens as a tribute to the award-winning, American luxury shoe label known for breaking the rules of fashion and creating timeless pieces for the First Ladies of the White House, screen, and stage.
Researchers Rick Riewe and Jill Oakes are awarded the Canadian Museums Association Outstanding Achievement Award for their publication of Spirit of Siberia released in tandem with the BSM exhibition. The duo worked closely with the Museum on several projects including Our Boots: An Inuit Woman’s Art (1995) and Appeasing the Spirits: Alaskan Coastal Cultures (2004).
Moose In Boots by local artist Dagma is displayed outside the Bata Shoe Museum as part of the City of Toronto Moose in the City public art initiative.
BSM receives the Outstanding Commitment to the Preservation and Care of Collections Award from The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and the Heritage Preservation of Washington D.C. Recognizing the Museum’s “unflagging dedication to the highest standards”, the award cited the opening of the BSM conservation lab which gives visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the conservation practice.
Every Step a Lotus: Shoes in the Lives of Women in Late Imperial China, curated by Dr. Dorothy Ko was one of our most popular exhibitions that explored the cultural meanings of the practice of footbinding in China by taking the visitor through the stages of a Chinese woman’s life in Late Imperial China.
In partnership with the Canadian Trade Office, the Bata Shoe Museum curates Shoes in Fashion for the Taipei National History Museum.
Moriyama & Teshima Architects make a significant donation of records from 1973 to 1991 to the Archives of Ontario, including the Bata Shoe Museum, the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, and the Ontario Science Centre projects.
Emanuele Lepri becomes the third Director of the Bata Shoe Museum. His tenure lasted 15 years, celebrating many milestones such as the 10th and 20th anniversary of the Museum.
The Bata Shoe Museum celebrates 10 years by hosting the Festival of Fun and Footwear along Bloor Street West in Toronto as a thank you to the city for their commitment and support.
The BSM permanent exhibition All About Shoes reopens with a new section titled Fashioning a Decade.
BSM is awarded first prize in the American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition for the Beads, Buckles and Bows: Four Hundred Years of Embellished Footwear foldout poster. Designed by Sunil Bhandari of Bhandari & Plater Inc., the work is a testament to the curatorial insight, creative elegance, and dedication to detail the Museum is known for.
Icons of Elegance: Influential Shoe Designers of the 20th Century opens with special guests Christian Louboutin and Beth Levine in attendance.
As part of Icons of Elegance, the Museum worked with top institutions around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum at FIT, Musée Salvatore Ferragamo, Charles Jourdan Museum, Le Musée de la chaussure as well as iconic designers Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, and Andrea Pfister.
Made possible by a Museum Assistance Program Department of Heritage grant, Heights of Fashion: A History of the Elevated Foot releases an exhibition catalogue and travels multiple locations across Canada.
The Bata Shoe Museum reaches one million visitors. Founder Sonja Bata commemorates the occasion with guests Ernie and Winsome Nunn from Victoria, Australia.
Our Warm the Sole Sock Drive initiative from 2008 to 2019 successfully donated thousands of socks to the Scott Mission with the help of our community and our corporate sponsor McGregor Socks.
Step Ahead, a BSM initiative subsidizing curriculum-based education programs for underserved communities launches with support from BMO Financial Group, McLean Budden Ltd. and RBC Foundation.
On a Pedestal, one of the BSM’s most historically significant exhibitions opens with a rare selection of chopines on loan from around the world including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Museo Bardini in Florence, Castello Sforzesco in Milan, Livrustkammaren and Skoklosters Slott in Stockholm, Museo Palazzo Mocenigo and Museo Correr in Venice, Ambras Castle in Austria, Boston Museum of Fine Art, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Chopines, a platform footwear, were worn during the Renaissance by upper-class women in Italy and Spain.
Roger Vivier: Process to Perfection opens with a selection from the BSM collection of nearly 80 pullovers by the French designer as well as loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Roger Vivier in France. Renowned for his bejeweled and elegantly sculptural shoes, Vivier’s innovations are as important in fashion today as when they first emerged in the 1920s and 30s.
Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture exhibition opens as the first North American showcase of the history of sneaker culture. Curated by Elizabeth Semmelhack and designed by Karim Rashid, the exhibition featured over 120 iconic sneakers from the last 150 years drawn from the Bata Shoe Museum and significant private collectors, museums, and archives including adidas AG, Converse Archives, Kosow Sneaker Museum, Nike Archives, Northampton Museums, and the Reebok Archives.
Brooklyn-based artist and icon Shantell Martin creates a Toronto-inspired window display for the Museum’s opening of Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture.
Following the success of Roger Vivier: Process to Perfection, the Bata Shoe Museum is awarded Best Publication by the Ontario Museum Association for the exhibition book written by BSM Senior Curator Elizabeth Semmelhack.
The Bata Shoe Musuem celebrates 20 years with the opening of Standing Tall: The Curious History of Men in Heels. Also, building upon The World At Your Feet digital series, the Museum launched A Global Mapping Project as a central online hub for folks across the world to share their own shoe stories throughout the commemorative year.
Standing Tall: The Curious History of Men in Heels challenged preconceived notions about who wears heels and why. From privileged rulers to hyper-sexualized rock stars, this provocative exhibition explored the history of men in heels from the early 1600s to today, delving into the use and meanings of heeled footwear in men’s dress over the last four hundred years.
The BSM commissions Parisian artist Pascale Peyret to design a shoe-themed installation for the Museum atrium. The work, titled EMPREINTES, marked the 400th anniversary of the Francophonie in Ontario.
Rizzoli publishes Out of the Box written by BSM Senior Curator Elizabeth Semmelhack. Including interviews and essays by legendary designers, sneaker collectors, and cultural historians. Since its’ publication, Out of the Box has sold over 40,000 copies.
Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture kicks off a groundbreaking, two-year exhibition tour across the USA and Australia in partnership with the American Federation of Arts.
We welcomed the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Director Dr. Martin Roth as our Founder’s Lecture as part of our 20th anniversary programming. His talk reflected upon the role of museums as integrators of fashion as a contemporary form of cultural entertainment.
Drawing from the BSM’s extensive circumpolar holdings, and building upon information gathered from extensive, museum-sponsored fieldwork, Art & Innovation: Traditional Arctic Footwear from the BSM Collection showcased a vast variety of footwear, garments and tools that highlighted the artistry and ingenuity of the makers and reveal different cultural identities, crafting techniques, and spiritual meanings.
The National Gallery of Canada begins a long-term initiative to display Indigenous footwear belongings from the Bata Shoe Museum’s collection in their Indigenous and Canadian Galleries. Rotating every 9-months, this display from 2020 was the vision of award-winning Nêhiyaw curator and member of the Siksika Nation, Gerald McMaster who thoughtfully positioned the belongings in the form of a round dance around a single drum.
Bata Shoe Museum founder and visionary, Sonja Bata passes away on February 20 at the age of 91. The Museum, its supporters, and community mourn the loss of a legend.
The BSM appointed Christine Bata-Schmidt as their Chairperson. As one of the children of founder Sonja Bata, Christine grew up in a home where the prized possessions were shoes and shares the vision for the museum to honour her mother’s legacy.
Manolo Blahnik, one of the most iconic designers of the 20th and 21st centuries, brings his exhibition The Art of Shoes to the Bata Shoe Museum. With record-breaking attendance and international media coverage, the exhibition is one of the most successful in BSM history.
BSM acquires a pair of the 1985 Air Jordans, a shoe that represents a profound shift in the status of sneaker culture and one of the most successful and profitable partnerships to ever occur between a footwear brand and a professional athlete.
Elizabeth Semmelhack becomes the new Director of the Bata Shoe Museum while maintaining her role as Senior Curator. With the Museum since 2000, Elizabeth has curated over 40 exhibitions, written numerous articles and books, spoken at countless events worldwide, and is credited by many as the foremost expert on the history of shoes.
Celebrating the Raptors NBA Championship win, nine pairs of sneakers wore during the playoffs by Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell, Marc Gasol, and Danny Green were displayed at the Museum.
The World at Your Feet is published to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Bata Shoe Museum. Sorted by colour, the book features the most extraordinary footwear in the Museum’s permanent collection. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, anniversary programming was cancelled and content shifted online.
The Great Divide: Footwear in the Age of Enlightenment opens as an exploration of various themes from gender and race to imperialism and colonization. Featuring 18th-century artifacts from the permanent collection, the exhibition highlighted complex stories about privilege, oppression, danger, desire, revolution, and resistance, all of which are as relevant today as they were 300 years ago.
Produced by BSM Collections Manager & Registrar Suzanne Petersen and Canadian Olympic figure skating medalist Astra Burka in partnership with Skate Canada, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, Boots & Blades: The Story of Canadian Figure Skating launches as the Museum’s first exclusively online exhibition with the Digital Museums Canada.
BSM opens its first future-focused exhibition, Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks as an exploration of groundbreaking technologies, innovative materials, and new ideas transforming the footwear industry,
In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #67 and guided by Moved to Action: Activating UNDRIP in Canadian Museums, BSM introduces their Repatriation Guidelines. Through community consultation with Linda Sioui, three pairs of Wendat moccasins are rehomed to the Musée Huron-Wendat in Wendake, Québec where they can be cared for and stewarded by Indigenous rights holders.
Wendat anthropologist, Linda Sioui / Inuk and Cree artist, Paula Menarick / and Camina Weasel Moccasin, member of the Kainai Nation and curator from the Galt Museum & Archives in Alberta generously shared their expertise by selecting moccasins for In Bloom: Flowers and Footwear.
BSM acquires the shoe truck of master shoemaker Pietro Yantorny (1874-1936). Taking years to make a pair of shoes, Yantorny’s clientele were among the wealthiest, most fashionable women of the time.
BSM acquires its first pair of Drag Queen shoes, a generous donation from Priyanka, winner of Canada’s Drag Race Season One. The adorned heels are unveiled as part of the BSM Pride Party held in partnership with Pride Toronto.
The Bata Shoe Museum reaches 100,000 followers on TikTok and produces several viral videos.
BSM becomes the first institution to publicly display the infamous Flannelfoot shoe and crime kit on loan from New Scotland Yard’s Crime Museum as part of Exhibit A: Investigating Crime and Footwear co-curated by Elizabeth Semmelhack and Dr. Alison Matthews David.
BSM releases its 20th publication, Dressed to Impress. Written by Curator and Manager of Exhibitions Nishi Bassi, the exhibition book explores fashion and pop culture in the 1980s.
The BSM Curatorial team visits the Vindolanda Museum in Hexham, UK to prepare for a 2026 Roman footwear exhibition.
Bata Shoe Museum staff and supporters proudly walk in the 2024 Pride Parade in Toronto in solidarity with LGBTQ2S+ communities.
Internationally renowned artist KAWS loans the BSM four pairs of shoes and two outfits for Art/Wear: Sneakers x Artists.
Legendary Canadian-British shoe designer Patrick Cox visits the BSM archives.
The Bata Shoe Museum celebrates 30 years with the opening of Rough & Ready: A History of the Cowboy Boot as a demonstration of its commitment to confronting historical assumptions, inspiring new perspectives, and opening doors for new ways of thinking and being.