This pair of oxford shoes was created for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Tomáš Baťa.
I wanted to depict the footwear as I perceive Mr. Bata, so I chose a few fragments from his life and transferred them to the footwear.
I derived the color scheme from the iconic “Baťovky” shoes, the footwear is largely made up of a cutout of the Baťa logo.
Another element visible on the footwear is the perforation, which represents Tomáš Baťa’s relationship with aviation. At the same time, the three propellers refer to the Fokker VII aircraft, with which T. Baťa undertook, up to that time, the largest business trip in the world.
The shape of the front part recalls to Baťa’s takeoff and vigor, or the beard of Antonín Baťa, T. Baťa’s father. The clasp is stylized as a crown and is therefore a depiction of the title “King of Footwear”.
There is a shield with a perforated Baťa logo on the tongue. The shield is held by a gold rivet, which is supposed to be a reference to the gold Swiss Movado watch that Baťa wore and is a reminder of T. Baťa’s relationship with time.
Last but not least, I would like to draw attention to the hand-embroidered dates of birth and death of T. Baťa, together with the initials TB, which are related to Tomáš Baťa’s personal items.
