BATA SHOE MUSEUM TO CELEBRATE 30 YEARS THIS MAY
Historic Milestones Celebrated as the Museum Embraces a New Exhibition
TORONTO, ON (March 31, 2025) – The Bata Shoe Museum proudly announces a monumental year of celebrating 30 years of fascinating exhibitions, public programs, and publications. Founded by Sonja Bata, the Bata Shoe Museum opened on May 6th, 1995 to care for a private collection of nearly 15,000 shoes and shoe-related artifacts spanning more than 4,500 years. A rare cultural gem designed by award-winning architect Raymond Moriyama, the Bata Shoe Museum explores human history through footwear, telling diverse stories from across the globe and throughout time. A cherished cultural gem in downtown Toronto, the BSM is one of Canada’s foremost international attractions and material culture museums.
To celebrate this honoured milestone, the Museum will unveil a new exhibition on May 7th titled Rough & Ready: A History of the Cowboy Boot, which will explore the history, craftsmanship, symbolism, and cultural evolution of cowboy boots from their invention in the nineteenth century to today.
“For 30 years, the Bata Shoe Museum has illuminated the global history of footwear and explored its profound cultural significance through groundbreaking exhibitions, publications, and programming”, reflects Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator at the Bata Shoe Museum. “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 shoes. With an unwavering commitment to community, we look forward to celebrating with you and creating new memories for decades to come.”
MILESTONES THROUGH THE DECADES
1980s
• Swiss-born Sonja Wettstein, who studied architecture before marrying Thomas Bata, head of the global Bata Shoe Company, in 1946, started collecting footwear artifacts, including from some of the earliest civilizations on Earth, while traveling the world on shoe business.
• 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 a pair of Elton John’s platform boots acquired by the Museum in 1988, have since become fan favourites.
1990s
• As the collection grew, Sonja Bata began working with distinguished Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama to realize her vision for a footwear museum.
• On May 6, 1995, the Bata Shoe Museum officially opened at 327 Bloor St. West with four exhibitions including 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.
• The following year, 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 France titled Shoe Dreams: Designs by Andrea Pfister signaling the BSM’s status as an internationally celebrated Museum and cultural landmark.
• 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.
2000s
• Icons of Elegance: Influential Shoe Designers of the 20th Century debuts with special guests Christian Louboutin and Beth Levine in attendance in 2005.
• The Museum reaches one million visitors in 2008.
• In 2009, the Museum launches Step Ahead, an ongoing initiative designed to subsidize curriculum-based education programs for underserved communities.
The Warm the Sole Sock Drive launches in 2008 in partnership with McGregor Socks to successfully donate thousands of socks to the Scott Mission over the next decade.
• 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. Chopines, a platform footwear, were worn during the Renaissance by upper-class women in southern Europe.
2010s
• In 2011, 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.
• In 2013, coinciding with the growing popularity of sneaker culture, the BSM opens Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture as the first North American exhibition about the history of sneakers. The exhibition features over 120 iconic sneakers drawn from the BSM collection and significant private collectors, museums, and archives including adidas AG, Converse Archives, Nike Archives, Puma Archives, Reebok Archives, Kosow Sneaker Museum, and Northampton Museums and Art Gallery.
• The Museum establishes a partnership with Manitobah Mukluks and TreadRight Foundation in 2015 to offer Storyboot School which teaches the art of moccasin and mukluk making to local Indigenous youth, a program that continues today.
• Founder Sonja Bata passes away on February 20, 2018 at the age of 91.
• The iconic shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, brings his exhibition The Art of Shoes to the Bata Shoe Museum in 2018 which becomes one of the most visited exhibitions in the Museum’s history.
2020s
• The Great Divide: Footwear in the Age of Enlightenment opens in 2020 as an exploration of various themes from gender and race to imperialism and colonization.
• Also in 2020, the Museum publishes The World at Your Feet to celebrate the Bata Shoe Museum’s 25th anniversary. The book features the most extraordinary footwear in the Museum’s permanent collection.
• In 2022, the Museum 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. Future Now is currently on tour across the United States.
• Also in 2022, the Museum releases the online exhibition Boots & Blades: The Story of Canadian Figure Skating.
• In 2023, in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #67 and guided by Moved to Action: Activating UNDRIP in Canadian Museums, the Bata Shoe Museum introduces its Repatriation Guidelines. Through community consultation with Linda Sioui, three pairs of Wendat moccasins are rehomed to the Huron-Wendat museum in Wendake, Québec to be cared for and stewarded by Indigenous rights holders.
• In 2024, internationally renowned artist KAWS loaned the museum seven pairs of sneakers and two outfits for Art/Wear: Sneakers x Artists and legendary Canadian-British shoe designer Patrick Cox visits the BSM archives.
Present – 2025
• 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.
Click to explore the Bata Shoe Museum’s extended online timeline.
Media Preview for Rough & Ready: A History of the Cowboy Boot
May 5, 2025 – 11 AM -1PM
Register to the preview by emailing breanna@dmpublic.com
Hour of Operations
Monday to Saturday, 10 AM – 5 PM
Sunday, 12 PM – 5 PM
General Admission to the BSM is free on Sundays.
Click to access the 30th Anniversary media kit
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ABOUT THE BATA SHOE MUSEUM
With a growing international collection of nearly 15,000 shoes and related artifacts, the Bata Shoe Museum showcases 4,500 years of footwear history in four distinctive rotating galleries. Through the creation of its innovative exhibitions, the BSM strives to enlighten and entertain visitors of all ages. For every shoe, there’s a story.
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For more information, media accreditation or interviews please contact:
Breanna Marcelo
DMPUBLIC
breanna@dmpublic.com
647-761-8493
Sarah Power
Head of Marketing & Communications,
Bata Shoe Museum
sarah.power@batashoemuseum.ca
416-979-7799 x225