Bata boots hoof it with the best

Bata Bullets are not really a New Zealand shoe, and gumboots are not made from gum.

Those Kiwi footwear myths are shattered for those who take the trip past the Wellington tip, hang a right before the South Coast, and head into Wellington’s Bata factory.

Operations manager Tony Harmer explains how what is now a humble factory away from the main road could easily have been so much more.

Czech entrepreneur Tomas Bat’a started the shoe company in the late 1800s.

As the company grew around the world, it searched out spots on the city fringes and would build not just factories but entire communities. There would be houses, schools, and universities, all owned by Bata for its workers.

The roads would be owned by Bata, and even the lamp posts had the Bata brand on them.

Times changed before that could be realised in Wellington, and the land around the factory was subdivided.

The only relic is the name of the road at the end of which the factory sits.

But even Bata Pl was gifted to the Wellington City Council 20-odd years ago.

The halcyon days, when Bata employed 365 workers across five factories in New Zealand, are long over.

The loosening of trade tariffs in the 1980s, meaning shoes could be manufactured more cheaply overseas, ended the golden run.

These days, the factory employs a handful of workers.

PVC gumboots, with their minimal labour costs, are the only footwear still made there.

And Harmer breaks the news that Bata Bullets – arguably the most quintessentially Kiwi shoe – are in fact an American design.

The PVC gumboots, however, they are as Kiwi as Fred Dagg. They’re just not made from gum.