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Great museum with interesting pieces. Recommend going especially during the heat wave. Great placards n easy to follow!!
The Bata has an extensive collection of shoes that will delight fashion enthusiasts and history buffs alike. The museum consists of several galleries that chronicle the evolution of footwear from prehistoric times, to special exhibitions that are very niche. The admission is very reasonable at $16 CAD, and gives you access to all the levels and galleries in the building. I like to read the plaques and really absorb the information presented, so it took me about 2 and a half hours, but considering how quickly I saw other people walk it, it may be less time. It's a smaller museum, but packs a mighty punch with the vast amount of displays. As mentioned earlier, the museum covered footwear dating back to prehistoric times, and then chronologically covers different cultures and their evolution of footwear. There are many actual displays of vintage shoes so you can see up close the craftsmanship. There were many thought-provoking displays like the shoes used for Chinese Foot Binding and real Moon Boots. While shoes are ubiquitous, do we ever really stop to think why we wear what we do? It was great to see all these specialty shoes and think about the people who might have worn them. Very educational! In the upstairs galleries, they had an exhibit about the history of the Cowboy Boot, one about Footwear and Crime, and another about Sneaker Customization and Collabs. All three were fantastic, but my favorite was the Sneaker one because some of the customizations really pushed the limit of what a sneaker is. It was really boundary pushing and thought provoking- which is exactly what the best exhibitions do! Definitely check out Bata Shoe Museum. It's thoughtfully curated and gives great insight into the evolution of footwear. It's a truly unique and inspiring museum.
Loved this museum! The museum isn't huge, but it's generally well-curated. The best way to explore is from the bottom up, starting with the "All About Shoes" gallery on the lower level. There's even a hands-on portion before you walk in so you get a chance to touch and feel some of the shoes you might want to touch/feel when you walk around the gallery. The "Art/Wear" exhibit was definitely my favorite. It was so well done and the compilation of sneakers featured was very cool. Overall, I'd recommend the Bata Shoe Museum to anyone who's interested in the history of shoes/footwear!
First time visiting here. It's a small museum with a lot of interesting things to see and learn about - history of shoes. They have a little kids area on the lower level with arts and crafts that you can make and take. Highly recommend checking it out as it's pretty cool.
I stayed at a hotel right across the street and was pleasantly surprised! As someone who has a love hate relationship with shoes I thought this would just be a random assortment of pretty shoes but I love how much history was here! It went from historic foot coverings to variations of Cinderella's glass slippers to art and crime! It covers so much! I will say if you have an hour go, explore, learn!
For an unusual museum I headed to the University of Toronto campus to see the Bata Shoe Museum. This museum was founded by the wife of the Bata shoe empire. It was four floors filled with shoes and exhibits. The shoes on display were just a small percentage of the 10k plus shoes collected by the museum. It was a well organized museum. The recommendation was to start at the bottom which tracked human's first steps, shoes and the evolution of footwear through the ages and cultures. It was quite interesting. That ended one floor up with an intro about the museum founding and mission. On the 3rd and 4th floors, there were special exhibitions devoted to artist sneaker creations (art on your feet), shoes in the 1980s (so many fashion trends and memories) and crime and footwear (less interesting for me). Overall spent a little over an hour here and enjoyed it more than I expected.
Never have I ever enjoyed a museum this much. The Bata Shoe Museum was recommended by the NYT on their 36 hours in Toronto. It was right on the yellow subway line, so I decided to give it a try while my sister was at a conference and I had the day to myself. The tickets were also SUPER cheap $14CND which ended up being $10 USD. Not that tickets are what limits my visits to museum but it was a nice surprise! I was SO IMPRESSED by this museum, I was really worried it would be kitschy, I mean, I like shoes, but I would've never considered myself a shoe fanatic. One thing Canada does really well is recognize the native people of Canada. They offer free admission to Indigenous visitors and every Sunday is free. The staff recommends you start on the first floor and move your way up, the first floor is All About Shoes, a historical account of shoes through the ages. From the first man who was thought to wear shoes to the different countries and religions, I loved that they included pieces on foot binding, something we don't talk about anymore. Sidebar: I will say, I was laughing at the display information, it was literally printed on paper, I used to work at a few museums in marketing and we never would've let this happen. It stands out because even the door handles are so stunning here. I was also confused because some of the display were missing from the descriptions especially in the decades portion. The architecture is also stunning which is why I thought the printed descriptions were funny. I loved the fairy tale and shoes portion, where they included the Korean Cinderella shoes. The special exhibits were Exhibit A (shoes and crime, which was SO interesting even though it felt like it might be like a bad clue game), In Bloom - flowers and shoes which was stunning, and Dressed to Impress (80s shoes but with cultural insight into workwear, especially as more women started to work). I spent about and hour and a half, and I easily could've stayed more. I don't think I've had this much fun at a shoe museum. IT's a MUST visit if you're in Toronto.
When in Toronto, this is an absolute must visit. I love shoes and I love museums so the Bata Shoe Museum was a great way to spend a couple hours. It was five floors of shoes, each floor with a different theme, highlighting the history, the styles, the cultural trends, the different utilities, etc. They even have an arts and crafts area for kids. Overall, a very fun and educational place for the whole family.
This is one of the smaller museums in the city (something to keep in mind) but is definitely worth checking out if you love shoes, or interested in how footwear differs through time and different countries. The museum is good for all ages, and is easily accessible by transit, located right outside the west exit of St. George subway station. Depending on how often you visit this place, and how much time you take to read the exhibit descriptions, you can expect to spend one to three hours here. Self guided tours and free WiFi are available, and the museum is very easy to navigate. Their permanent collection on the lower level explores 4,500 years of footwear history, from ancient Egyptian sandals to contemporary worn by celebrities to shoes made for modern days dolls like Barbie and Polly Pocket. They also change the exhibits on their other floors regularly. Some of the featured exhibits I've checked out over the years included Manolo Blahnik, All Dolled Up, and most recently In Bloom all of which I found interesting.
This was a really cool museum, smaller than a typical one. And when I visit in late Oct only 3 exhibits were open. They were doing renovation and working on what looked like a really cool exhibit. Nonetheless, the standing exhibit on the history of shoes was really interesting. I probably spent an hour there alone. Once I was done there, the visit went by quick. Cool exhibits on the top floors, but smaller so it didn't take long to get through. I enjoyed the obsessed exhibit. Bloom was interesting, I thought it would be more about plant based materials in shoes but ended up being more about shoes with plant/flower motifs. Still worth a visit if you like shoes!
After reading several recommendations we decide to visit the Bata Shoe Museum. The museum was easy to find and is located near the University of Toronto. Parking was not as easy. Street parking seemed to be the only option. It took a few circles around the block to find a spot. The museum is part of NARM, so we were able to enter for free. The museum consists of four floors and is full of shoe history and current shoe exhibits. They also have special events, including crafts and story times. It seems this museum would be interested to people of all ages. Overall, The Bata Museum is worth a visit. It is not your typical museum and proved to be a great concept. It took a little under two hours to tour all four floors.
Shoes, shoes, and more shoes. This is the place to see if you're into shoes. Men's or women's. All types, all sizes from all around the world and all ages. There's a ton of history to learn about shoes and what's to come. I don't know the parking arrangement to this place because I took public transit but that was easy to find. This building has multiple floors and has an elevator for those who are challenged that way. They only display an extremely small amount of the inventory they have and cycle through it from time to time. Definitely something to do while in town.
My friend and I had a day trip to Toronto last weekend. Our targets were the shoe museum and ROM. This is almost right next door to the ROM, by University of Toronto, on Bloor. We parked in one of the parking garage near by. Admission is $14 CAD, parking was $9 CAD for 12 hours. The shoe museum has the history, social status and designs of shoes. It was very interesting to look through this small museum as we both love shoes. It took us a little over an hour to go through.
Who knew there was a museum in Toronto dedicated to SHOES! Founded by Sonja Bata in 1995 after collecting shoes since 1940. I was able to find street parking a couple blocks away. Admission is free on Sunday. The museum is 4 floors of well curated exhibits. Current exhibits, April 2026, include 'All about shoes' which chronicles the history of shoes, 'Rough and Ready: the history of cowboy boots' and 'André Perugla: a design legend unveiled'. While I was there, they were preparing for a new exhibit so the 'Sneakers and Artists' exhibit was closed. I was told they have new exhibits every 18 months. There is a small gift shop in the lobby. I spent approximately an hour and a half in the museum. Staff was informative and clearly passionate about the museum. I recommend a visit to The Bata Shoe Museum read more
1 year ago
The Bata has an extensive collection of shoes that will delight fashion enthusiasts and history buffs alike. The museum consists of several galleries that chronicle the evolution of footwear from prehistoric times, to special exhibitions that are very niche. The admission is very reasonable at $16 CAD, and gives you access to all the levels and galleries in the building. I like to read the plaques and really absorb the information presented, so it took me about 2 and a half hours, but considering how quickly I saw other people walk it, it may be less time. It's a smaller museum, but packs a mighty punch with the vast amount of displays. As mentioned earlier, the museum covered footwear dating back to prehistoric times, and then chronologically covers different cultures and their evolution of footwear. There are many actual displays of vintage shoes so you can see up close the craftsmanship. There were many thought-provoking displays like the shoes used for Chinese Foot Binding and real Moon Boots. While shoes are ubiquitous, do we ever really stop to think why we wear what we do? It was great to see all these specialty shoes and think about the people who might have worn them. Very educational! In the upstairs galleries, they had an exhibit about the history of the Cowboy Boot, one about Footwear and Crime, and another about Sneaker Customization and Collabs. All three were fantastic, but my favorite was the Sneaker one because some of the customizations really pushed the limit of what a sneaker is. It was really boundary pushing and thought provoking- which is exactly what the best exhibitions do! Definitely check out Bata Shoe Museum. It's thoughtfully curated and gives great insight into the evolution of footwear. It's a truly unique and inspiring museum. read more
Loved this museum! The museum isn't huge, but it's generally well-curated. The best way to explore is from the bottom up, starting with the "All About Shoes" gallery on the lower level. There's even a hands-on portion before you walk in so you get a chance to touch and feel some of the shoes you might want to touch/feel when you walk around the gallery. The "Art/Wear" exhibit was definitely my favorite. It was so well done and the compilation of sneakers featured was very cool. Overall, I'd recommend the Bata Shoe Museum to anyone who's interested in the history of shoes/footwear! read more
First time visiting here. It's a small museum with a lot of interesting things to see and learn about - history of shoes. They have a little kids area on the lower level with arts and crafts that you can make and take. Highly recommend checking it out as it's pretty cool. read more
I stayed at a hotel right across the street and was pleasantly surprised! As someone who has a love hate relationship with shoes I thought this would just be a random assortment of pretty shoes but I love how much history was here! It went from historic foot coverings to variations of Cinderella's glass slippers to art and crime! It covers so much! I will say if you have an hour go, explore, learn! read more
For an unusual museum I headed to the University of Toronto campus to see the Bata Shoe Museum. This museum was founded by the wife of the Bata shoe empire. It was four floors filled with shoes and exhibits. The shoes on display were just a small percentage of the 10k plus shoes collected by the museum. It was a well organized museum. The recommendation was to start at the bottom which tracked human's first steps, shoes and the evolution of footwear through the ages and cultures. It was quite interesting. That ended one floor up with an intro about the museum founding and mission. On the 3rd and 4th floors, there were special exhibitions devoted to artist sneaker creations (art on your feet), shoes in the 1980s (so many fashion trends and memories) and crime and footwear (less interesting for me). Overall spent a little over an hour here and enjoyed it more than I expected. read more
Never have I ever enjoyed a museum this much. The Bata Shoe Museum was recommended by the NYT on their 36 hours in Toronto. It was right on the yellow subway line, so I decided to give it a try while my sister was at a conference and I had the day to myself. The tickets were also SUPER cheap $14CND which ended up being $10 USD. Not that tickets are what limits my visits to museum but it was a nice surprise! I was SO IMPRESSED by this museum, I was really worried it would be kitschy, I mean, I like shoes, but I would've never considered myself a shoe fanatic. One thing Canada does really well is recognize the native people of Canada. They offer free admission to Indigenous visitors and every Sunday is free. The staff recommends you start on the first floor and move your way up, the first floor is All About Shoes, a historical account of shoes through the ages. From the first man who was thought to wear shoes to the different countries and religions, I loved that they included pieces on foot binding, something we don't talk about anymore. Sidebar: I will say, I was laughing at the display information, it was literally printed on paper, I used to work at a few museums in marketing and we never would've let this happen. It stands out because even the door handles are so stunning here. I was also confused because some of the display were missing from the descriptions especially in the decades portion. The architecture is also stunning which is why I thought the printed descriptions were funny. I loved the fairy tale and shoes portion, where they included the Korean Cinderella shoes. The special exhibits were Exhibit A (shoes and crime, which was SO interesting even though it felt like it might be like a bad clue game), In Bloom - flowers and shoes which was stunning, and Dressed to Impress (80s shoes but with cultural insight into workwear, especially as more women started to work). I spent about and hour and a half, and I easily could've stayed more. I don't think I've had this much fun at a shoe museum. IT's a MUST visit if you're in Toronto. read more
When in Toronto, this is an absolute must visit. I love shoes and I love museums so the Bata Shoe Museum was a great way to spend a couple hours. It was five floors of shoes, each floor with a different theme, highlighting the history, the styles, the cultural trends, the different utilities, etc. They even have an arts and crafts area for kids. Overall, a very fun and educational place for the whole family. read more
This is one of the smaller museums in the city (something to keep in mind) but is definitely worth checking out if you love shoes, or interested in how footwear differs through time and different countries. The museum is good for all ages, and is easily accessible by transit, located right outside the west exit of St. George subway station. Depending on how often you visit this place, and how much time you take to read the exhibit descriptions, you can expect to spend one to three hours here. Self guided tours and free WiFi are available, and the museum is very easy to navigate. Their permanent collection on the lower level explores 4,500 years of footwear history, from ancient Egyptian sandals to contemporary worn by celebrities to shoes made for modern days dolls like Barbie and Polly Pocket. They also change the exhibits on their other floors regularly. Some of the featured exhibits I've checked out over the years included Manolo Blahnik, All Dolled Up, and most recently In Bloom all of which I found interesting. read more
This was a really cool museum, smaller than a typical one. And when I visit in late Oct only 3 exhibits were open. They were doing renovation and working on what looked like a really cool exhibit. Nonetheless, the standing exhibit on the history of shoes was really interesting. I probably spent an hour there alone. Once I was done there, the visit went by quick. Cool exhibits on the top floors, but smaller so it didn't take long to get through. I enjoyed the obsessed exhibit. Bloom was interesting, I thought it would be more about plant based materials in shoes but ended up being more about shoes with plant/flower motifs. Still worth a visit if you like shoes! read more
After reading several recommendations we decide to visit the Bata Shoe Museum. The museum was easy to find and is located near the University of Toronto. Parking was not as easy. Street parking seemed to be the only option. It took a few circles around the block to find a spot. The museum is part of NARM, so we were able to enter for free. The museum consists of four floors and is full of shoe history and current shoe exhibits. They also have special events, including crafts and story times. It seems this museum would be interested to people of all ages. Overall, The Bata Museum is worth a visit. It is not your typical museum and proved to be a great concept. It took a little under two hours to tour all four floors. read more
3 years ago
Shoes, shoes, and more shoes. This is the place to see if you're into shoes. Men's or women's. All types, all sizes from all around the world and all ages. There's a ton of history to learn about shoes and what's to come. I don't know the parking arrangement to this place because I took public transit but that was easy to find. This building has multiple floors and has an elevator for those who are challenged that way. They only display an extremely small amount of the inventory they have and cycle through it from time to time. Definitely something to do while in town. read more
My friend and I had a day trip to Toronto last weekend. Our targets were the shoe museum and ROM. This is almost right next door to the ROM, by University of Toronto, on Bloor. We parked in one of the parking garage near by. Admission is $14 CAD, parking was $9 CAD for 12 hours. The shoe museum has the history, social status and designs of shoes. It was very interesting to look through this small museum as we both love shoes. It took us a little over an hour to go through. read more
4 years ago
A well organized, informative museum! "Shoes" are usually not the first thing that comes to mind when we think of historical artifacts, but this place did manage to get some decent stories out of them. I appreciated that the layout of the visit is clear and coherent (start out in the basement and work your way up). Exhibits are clean and fairly varied - shoes worn by the ancient civilizations right up to modern day, you'd be surprised at some of them - but there is quite a bit of reading, so maybe not the most suitable for younger kids. We went on a weekday afternoon and there were very few people around, so we enjoyed ourselves wandering slowly through the empty areas and taking rests as needed on the couches. I think this place is worth a visit (especially if you're into fashion and the like). However, I probably wouldn't go back again. P.S. The museum is currently free to visit on Sundays! Failing that, Attractions Ontario also has a 2-for-1 coupon (search for the 2022 version) that they accept. Alternatively, I believe you can borrow a pass from the library which gives you access, although availability could be limited. :) read more
4 years ago
Such a well done and educational museum! Came in the early afternoon on a Friday. Prices were great, they accepted student discounts for Americans from US universities. Only a handful of other guests were there. There are four stories. The first included a creative kid's area and a place to try on different styles of shoes. The museum goes through the history of shoes, from the first shoes ever found thousands of years ago to modern day innovations. They detail in great length different regional and cultural shoe styles and purposes with actual examples from that time period. On the third floor are modern and futuristic shoes where you can "try them on" with AR technology on your phone. You can tell the museum takes great care in the upkeep of the displays and floors. You can even glimpse in the studio where they study and categorize the shoes on the top floor. We were tired so we sped through it a bit, maybe only staying about 40 minutes. If you went through and read every sign, it probably would take an hour and a half or so. We had an excellent time all around, it far exceeded my expectations. Highly recommend! read more
This place was a pleasant surprise. A shoe museum? Why not. This museum is absolutely stunning! Thanks to a community partnership they have, I was also able to get 2 tickets for free ahead of time online. Very cool. While in Toronto, they had a special exhibit on called "In Bloom", highlighting flowers in footwear. I loved seeing all the high-fashion from around the world. In terms of exhibit design, the Bata really blew me away. They had some of the most beautifully designed exhibit halls I've ever seen. You might wonder how you could get a few hours out of a shoe museum, but so much of it is in large part to the elegant designs and welcoming exhibit halls. The permanent collections feature shoes from around the world and ranging in time periods. Think everything from Marilyn Monroe's shoes to wooden shoes from overseas centuries ago. We also loved the charming gift store, the deeply accessible museum layout for people with disabilities, and ample places to sit and enjoy. To me, the Bata is a hidden gem in plain sight, and it should be on your shortlist for something totally unique. read more
2 years ago
The Bata Shoe Museum is a weird and wonderful place. I stopped in to kill some time, and for only 8$ (student price, full price adult tickets are around 14$, or Free admission if you go on Sunday) I got to see a really cool collection of historic shoes, replicas of famous shoes, and even Pope shoes! They had a few exhibition rooms, one that was 80s themed which was really fun. I went on a Saturday and it wasn't very busy. Totally worth checking out for something fun and novel in the city! read more
2 years ago
A very cool, unique museum that I'm glad we checked out. This is a perfect place if you are looking for something different to do for just 1-2 hours. The museum has 3 floors with various different exhibits. There is a small gift shop at the end. Wish the gift shop had more specific items to the museum instead of just about shoes (like museum t shirts, stickers, etc) read more
5 years ago
Due to our short visit to Toronto, busy itinerary, and Covid regulations (limited capacity, timed tickets, etc), we were only able to visit one museum, the Bata Shoe Museum. However, it was a FANTASTIC museum, and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to go. The Bata Shoe Museum opened in 1995, its founder Sonja Bata, of Bata Shoes. As the name suggests, it is a museum of shoes, and it is one of the most interesting museums I have visited. According to their website, there are over 14,000 items on display. The exhibits we saw were: All About Shoes: Footwear Through the Ages; The Gold Standard: Glittering Footwear From Around the Globe; Art & Innovation: Traditional Arctic Footwear from the Bata Shoe Museum Collection; and The Great Divide: Footwear in the Age of Enlightenment. I found the Footwear Through the Ages and Traditional Arctic Footwear displays particularly interesting. The Arctic exhibit had traditional footwear and clothing from the inhabitants of the various areas in the Arctic -- the Sami; Western Siberia; Eastern Siberia; Alaska; Canada; and Greenland. The museum regularly changes their exhibits (the only permanent exhibit is All About Shoes: Footwear Through the Ages), and if I have the opportunity to go to Toronto again, I will definitely go the the Bata Museum for another visit. The museum is also a great place to visit if you're interested in architecture -- it is a beautiful building, designed by the architect Raymond Moriyama. I don't know architecture and I haven't heard of him, but he's well known, and even if you don't know anything about architecture, the building is eye-catching. (Sonja Bata also studied architecture.) Tickets are quite reasonable (adult tickets, the most expensive type, are $14), but we came on a Sunday, and apparently admission was free on Sundays. (It may have been a temporary promotion, as I don't see this on their website.) We spent about two hours in the museum, but I could have easily spent longer. [Yelp collections: Toronto/Niagara Falls 2021; Museums and Art Galleries; Cheap Thrills] read more
4 years ago
Sundays FREE...!!! There is so much to see at this museum that you need a couple of hours to learn about shoes. YES...!! What's in shoe...???? History, beauty, fashion, colonization, power, stigma, function, there is so much to explore...!!!!! They have ongoing exhibitions from time to time. But the 3 floor museum does a great job on showing much history about an article we use every day. Take a visit to the Bata Shoe Museum to find out about it. They have so much on history of many cultures, what were the shoes used for, why they used it for..... this list is short it can go on with more stuff. Don't want to be the spoiler alert, but it's worth a visit. Their collection of shoes and objects is around 14,000 items...! and it spans 4,500 years in history. Are you pumped to see some shoes?? read more
4 years ago
2 years ago
2 years ago
If you're into shoes, this is a great place to visit. It's only $14 CAD for admission and there are several floors. It was a nice large collections. It should take about 2-3 hours depending on your level of interest in footwear. It was fun and interesting. read more
9 years ago
This museum is about so much more than just shoes: History, art, religion, culture as well as fashion. From the grass lined primitive shoes of Otzi man to the chestnut crushing clogs of 19th century France; waterproof seal intestine and salmon skin native boots to the sky high platform shoes of rock stars of the 70s; bells on sandals to sexy Manolo Blahnik heels: this collection is definitely going to appeal to the shoe aficionado as well as the history buff in you. The exhibits are beautifully and artfully arranged with captions and interesting stories to accompany the artifacts. You will definitely walk away with a new appreciation of footwear. read more
I know how girly and typical this is going to sound, but bear with me while I declare my absolute and mad love for shoes. True love. No passing fling here. My shoes are in The Container Store plastic boxes to create universality in my closet and to let each pair know how much I love them. Flats, heels, wedges and boots. I. CANNOT. HAVE. ENOUGH. I could reference Carrie Bradshaw here for comparison, but you understand what I am saying. On my last day in Toronto, I was told by the lovely Joni Hubred-Golden (Hi Joni!) about the museum and immediately reworked my plans to make a stop before heading to the airport. I am nothing if not committed to my love of shoes. (One could note that this love should have alerted me to knowing about this museum before my last day in Toronto, but I could not conceive of such a wonderful thing. I was blissfully surprised and my belief in my travel karma was confirmed.) Showing up a little before they opened (and a little before the young field-trippers) at 10am, they recommended that I start on the ground floor and work my way up to the sneaker exhibit on the top floor. I dutifully followed directions. Walking around and seeing some of the almost 10,000 pairs of shoes on exhibit here (covering hundreds of years and many different cultures), I have never in my life had so many people (mostly employees and museum volunteers) look at my shoes in my life. I started to walk differently after awhile. Longer strides and all. Pointed-toe. I think I started the five basic positions of ballet. They all needed to know with whom they were dealing. The ancient Egyptian's tiny sandals, the Indian's jeweled flats and China's embroidered slides were there. The Tudor's rigid metal boots were there, too. Some shoes were ceremonial and others were drinking cups (the Germans, of course), but what I found the most interesting were the stories connected to specific kinds of shoes. From the museum's placard: In Judaism, according to Biblical law, when a man dies and leaves his wife childless it is the duty of his brother to marry his widow to perpetuate the family line. If the brother declines to marry his sister-in-law, the halizah ceremony is performed. The halizah shoe, which is the property of the community, is placed on the man's foot and in front of witnesses, the widow unlaces the shoe and removes it thereby releasing her brother-in-law of his obligation and she becomes free to marry whomever she wishes. Well, I am a big fan of everyone marrying whomever they wish and having the halizah ceremony connected to footwear is interesting. There were also slightly less binding pieces of shoe information like: did you know that bootleggers made shoes that, when tracked in the snow, appeared to be going in the opposite direction to avoid detection? Clever. And now, I satisfy your curiosity by letting you know that Bieber made his way in. Well, his sneakers did. You just KNEW Bieber was going to sneak his way into this museum. In a little musican-focused section, they had a tribute to some (use your own adjective) artists. They included: Ella Fitzgerald Elvis Presley John Lennon Sir Elton John Madonna Barbra Streisand Sarah McLachlan and Justin Bieber I mean, really? Ok, Canada. Ok. Next there were some clogs and some Zuni boots that I definitely wanted to steal. I just pictured myself goading you like Catherine Banning does to Thomas in the museum date scene in The Thomas Crown Affair. TC: "What would you take?" CB: "For my personal choice... that one." TC: "You? You would like to have that?" CB: "Why? Would you get it for me?" A girl can dream. ANYWAY, next comes the kicks. In their exhibit Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture, I was reminded of that Missy Elliott MTV Cribs episode about her well-stocked sneaker closet and learned that Nike hasn't spent one marketing dollar on the Air Force 1 (white-on-white) mostly because they get free publicity through rappers. JayZ allegedly only wears his once before discarding them for a new pair... and I thought I had a shoe addiction. Out of the Box did a nice job of keeping the entire museum current by basically throwing it into modern day (you don't count, Bieber) through: Christian Louboutin's 2012 Roller Boats Lanvin's Patent Toe-caps from This Year Louis Vuitton x Kanye West Don's 2009 Collaboration and PUMA x Alexander McQueen's Joust Boot. Just lovely. Would I recommend coming here even if you are not a fanatic about this genre? Yes. Even if it is just to steal those Zuni boots for me. read more
I had the pleasure of coming the to the Bata Shoe Museum for a wedding of two friends from Toronto now living in NYC. They had the ceremony on the lower floor, and the reception spanned across the entire museum. We were even allowed to check out the exhibitions throughout the night, which made it extra special. A very cool collection of shoes and history in this building. I learned a lot and was quite entertained by what was exhibited at this museum! read more
I love going to museums so when I heard about the shoe museum I knew I had to check it out. Visited Bata Shoe Museum last weekend and had a lot of fun! It's a really small museum, so the quality of the experience is totally dependent on what special exhibitions they have on. I definitely liked the bottom floor the most - they had a really cool photo-exhibit of personal shoes, and the Shoes Around the World exhibit was really awesome and fascinating. I didn't really care for the sneakers special exhibit myself, but it was educational nonetheless, and the documentary they had projecting on the wall was really fun to watch. Would definitely recommend a go at least once! You can find buy-one-get-one-free admission coupons if you look around, usually in the racks where you find all the other touristy fliers. We were both University students ($8 each) and had a buy-one-get-one free admission coupon, so we got in for $4 each (!!!). Also, they have a partnership with other museums, so if you keep your receipt, you can get buy one get one free admission to a few other museums in Toronto. I definitely don't think I would have enjoyed it if I had paid the full $14 dollars, but as it was I had a lot of fun and was really glad I got to check it out. read more
Came by on a rainy Saturday and it was the perfect way to stay dry. It was educational, indoors and free to enter. I know this is Yelp and I would be earning my keep if I told you why it was free and or what day entry is gratis but I don't know and don't feel like looking into it. Now. What was really cool was all of the history. For anyone thinking they would just have shoes and more shoes with the history of those pairs and that be that, you're wrong. The museum does a great job of tracing footwear through the ages. Another thing that I loved was the exhibit on footwear during The Great Depression. Anything Art Deco gets my goat so that was cool and informative. But the exhibit I favored the most was the one about Arctic footwear which actually had quite a bit of clothing too. So much ingenuity on display. So do check out this gem of a museum. An interesting way to study humanity, from the ground up. read more
2 years ago
What a surprisingly fun and informative museum! Though this small museum can be covered in a couple of hours, you'll come away with a deep appreciation for this ubiquitous part of our lives -- its evolution, development, and place in history. Not just fashion is displayed, but also the functionality and cleverness of some arcane designs. The engineer in me was fascinated by some of the specialized footwear for snow travel (not just snow shoes are shown), moon walks, agriculture (spiky horror movie-like design by French farmers for shelling chestnuts), animals (truly elegantly designed hoof-wear for cows); and the accompanying tools-of-the-trade for making shoes. My wife would like the Native American feather shoes for her winter slippers. Someone should make these commercially ... Also: Check out the bottom floor's Escher-like parquet flooring! read more
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![Art Gallery of Ontario - [03.2026]](https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/dFIUki8m_YAY577Hd3NpfA/ls.jpg)
