And now, by popular demand

CHARLIE BROWN and his nemesis Lucy certainly don’t look 65 years old, but that’s the birthday they’re celebrating this year as the stars of Charles M Schulz’s beloved comic strip and several hit movies.

And they’ve given shoemaker Bata a chance to blossom from being “merely” the preferred brand of schoolchildren to making a genuine fashion statement with a limited-edition line of sneakers in classic pinstripes featuring all the Peanuts characters.

The sneakers have caused a sensation on the social media since their unveiling, which is always a good sign in the market.

There are three versions of the white canvas low-tops, each sporting images around the rubber toe caps of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and Woodstock engaged in a game of tennis.

Only 1,500 pairs were produced and sold late last year at selected stores in Paris, New York, Miami, London, Tokyo, and Taipei. Then, in response to popular demand, Bata Thailand managed to secure another 200 pairs from purchasers and is making them available from January 29 to 31 at its pop-up store in Siam Center.

The 200 pairs going on sale here are in British unisex sizes 3 to 10 and cost Bt3,599. 

 “We had such strong demand after Thais saw this special shoe being sold in stores around the world,” says Bata Thailand managing director Eugenio Olabe. “It was our good fortune to find a supply and be able to add to the history and the heritage of Bata.”

In keeping with the design of the sneakers, the 25-square-metre shop on the second floor of Siam Center is being set up like a mini-tennis court – and a Bata museum. The walls will have vintage posters and other visuals tracing the brand’s history all the way back to 1894, when Tomas Bata founded the company in his village in what is now the Czech Republic.

 Bata is now under the direction of Charles Pignal, a member of the fourth generation of the family, and it was his idea to re-launch the Bata Tennis shoe in 2014 in collaboration with Comme des Garcons. That line bore CdG’s signature polka-dot pattern. The “Bata Tennis x Peanuts” collection is its second joint enterprise.

“The Peanuts cartoons are classics that have been winning people’s hearts for 65 years,” Olabe points out. “Similarly, the Bata Tennis show has been produced in Batanagar, India, since 1936. The designs of both the Peanuts characters and the Bata Tennis are originals yet up to date, and embossed with history.”

Hundreds of millions of Indian schoolchildren have become intimately familiar with the Bata Tennis shoe over the past 80 years ago. It was standard gear for physical-education classes long before becoming popular as casual everyday footwear thanks to sheer comfort. The company reckons it’s sold more than half a billion of the shoes in India.

Since 2013 Pignal has led a project called Bata Heritage that promotes the firm’s 120-year history and its ability to keep up with modern trends while staying true to its basic values. 

The focus is on its three most popular shoes – Bata Tennis, Bata Safari and Bata Bullets – and these latter two might also become available in Thailand if customers are enthusiastic enough. 

The Bata Safari Boot, dating to the late 1950s, is based on the leather Veldtschoen (field shoe) worn by Boer farmers in South Africa. It’s made of top-quality cowhide hand-stitched at a factory in Limuru, Kenya. The Bata Bullet was born in America in 1964 as the designated court-wear of the National Basketball Association’s Baltimore Bullets.

“Customers today know what they want and they want something by which they can identify themselves,” says Olabe. So, rugged outdoors or swift in the game – the choice is in your hands (and on your feet).

 

ON YOUR MARKS

Just 200 pairs of the Bata Tennis x Peanuts sneakers will be available at the Bata pop-up store on the second floor of Siam Centre from January 29 to 31.

For details, call (02) 312 0341 or visit www.Bata.co.th or the “BataThailand” page on Facebook.