Photo: Viktor Daněk, Czech Radio
Botas, the Czech brand known for its iconic sneakers, which recently fell on hard times and had to cease production at the turn of last year, may yet be resurrected. A rapidly rising Zlín-based newcomer to the Czech shoe market – Vasky – recently announced that it plans to incorporate Botas into its own company and keep the sneakers in production. I spoke to the founder of Vasky, Václav Staněk.
“The reason why I started Vasky seven years ago, when I was 18, was because I wanted to continue the Czech tradition of shoe manufacturing that was started by Tomáš Baťa.
“I believe that the step we are doing now is exactly one of the ways of how to help maintain this tradition, because Botas was founded 70 years ago and I would be glad if it keeps going for another seven decades.”
Tell us how you plan to purchase Botas?
“We have a lot of spares on stock at Vasky and we needed to raise some money to buy Botas. So we did a sale and communicated our plan to our customers.
“I am really glad that they heard us out. It was very cool and we pulled it off. We sold around 8,000 pairs of shoes and that is the reason why we are able to buy Botas.”
See the rest here.
Author: Thomas McEnchroe