The most famous shoemaker in the history of the Czech Republic was a self-motivated fantasist. The founder of the Shoe company Baťa, which the Czechs call "the Baťa Empire", actually created the modern Zlín exactly as it can be seen today, a century later.

This city has been dependent on shoe manufacturing for decades. However, it does not have a separate museum dedicated to shoes, although old publications on the Internet assure the opposite. A few years ago, the independent Museum became part of the Museum of South-Eastern Moravia in Zlín.

The Museum's thematic exhibitions tell about how the Baťa`s business grew, and also about the most important product of its factories.

The permanent exhibition entitled "The Baťa Principle: Today Fantasy, Tomorrow Reality'" is located in building 14 / 15 of the Baťa Institute. This "city within a city" has its own numbering system. This number means "the 14th building of the factory complex".

The entire 3rd floor of the Museum represents the history of the Baťa company from its foundation in 1894 to the nationalization of the Czechoslovak part of the concern after World War II.

The exhibition includes 3 themes: shoes and Baťa products, movies and travel. Three-dimensional expositions present four stages of the "Baťa system": shoe workshop, large-scale production of shoes, sales, and transportation. A separate section is dedicated to the company's personalities and history.

You can travel across centuries and continents during your visit. You will be able to see shoe trends from the past to the present at the exhibition. For example, exotic "shoes" that are still worn by local residents in different places of our planet.

Among the valuable "exotic" there is, for example, a collection of textile shoes from the period of the Chinese Empire. There is also an interesting collection of African sandals and a collection of traditional shoes from India.