Bata Shoe Museum

The Bata Shoe Museum is a footwear museum, located at Bloor Street and St. George Street in the Bloor Street Culture Corridor district of Downtown Toronto. The museum collects, researches, preserves, and exhibits footwear from around the world. It offers four exhibitions, three of which are time-limited; lectures; performances; and family events. The collection contains over 13500 items from throughout history, as well as the present. The collection which became the Bata Shoe Museum was started by Sonja Bata in the 1940s. As she travelled the world on business with her husband, Thomas J. Bata, she gradually built up a collection of traditional footwear from the areas she was visiting. It is the only museum in North America dedicated solely to the history of footwear.