About us
BOTAS – top quality for fair price
The company was established on July 4th,1949 under the name Botana. It was built upon centuries of shoemaking tradition in the Skuteč region. Already in 1534 Jindřich Šťastný von Valdštýn and Rychumbuk issued new Statutes for the guild of shoe makers in Skuteč. The rich shoemaking tradition of the Skuteč region is documented in the City Museum of Skuteč, among the historic attractions of which is the biggest shoe (mm long) ever made in the Czech Republic.
At first the chief production programme of Botana was male walking shoes with only a minor production of ski and skating shoes. However the sports shoes production increased over the years. In 1958 the sports shoes represented 6,5% of the production, ten years later it was 51,3% and in 1988 it was even 82,9%.
Since 1963 the company has been making shoes under the brand “botas” (BOTA-Sports, BOTA-Skuteč, bota is Czech for shoe). In 1970s a new plant was built in Skuteč as well as a new administrative HQ of the company. The shoes kept improving, new shoe types were developed and in 1974 the company already had a collection of 230 shoe types for almost all kinds of sports. The products were made not only for the domestic market, but also to 35 other countries (such as Germany, England, France, Norway, Canada, Sweden, Finland, USA, Australia, New Zealand etc.). The biggest customer was the Soviet Union. The company’s production peaked in 1983 - 1985. In 1984 the company produced 2,600.000 pairs of shoes. The high quality of the shoes is documented by a number of medals and prizes from the trade fairs in Liberec, Leipzig or Brno.
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In March 1991 Botana transformed into a joint stock company with government as only a co-owner. In the 1990s, when the eastern markets fell apart and when privatisation broke the company assets among many small shareholders, the company went downhill.
In years 1990 – 1996 Botana made production for companies PUMA, JOFA, GRAF, CCM, ADIDAS, KOHO, BAUER, KARHU, JACKSON, RIEDELL and some other small foreign companies. In 1992 Botana concluded a production contract with the company SALOMON AG. This mutually successful cooperation, where Botana produced the technologically most-advanced shoes (snow-board, trekking, cross-country skiing shoes) ended in 2001, when the owners of SOLOMON changed. However within a licensing programme, this cooperation still continues.
In 1995 the majority owner of Botana became the company BENAL s.r.o. from Prague, and made the needed restructuring of the company, to make Botana more competitive in the conditions of open market and to be able to withstand the pressing competition of cheap imported shoes from Far East.
On 1.1.2000 the name of the company was changed to be identical with the sports brand as BOTAS a.s. and the new, contemporary, logo was made. The production of winter sports shoes focused on ice hockey, figure skating and cross-country skiing forms 90% of overall production.
The shoes “botas” were worn by a number of Czech and foreign sportsmen, who were successful in Olympic games and world championships. Among the best known are the four-fold world champions in ice dancing – the siblings Eva and Pavel Roman, gymnasts Čáslavská and Bosáková, ski-jumper Jiří Raška. The “botas” shoes have been worn by the volleyball, football tennis (“nohejbal”) and hockey representation teams.
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The Roman's brother and sister |
From the contemporary well known sports icons, the “botas” shoes are worn by the multiple world champion in football tennis Petr Bubniak, all of the Czech and Slovak football tennis representation team or the skier Dušan Kožíšek (bronze medal in the world championship 2007 in Sappor).
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Among the latest successes of the “botas” shoes is the first prize in the European designer competition ED-Awards in May 2008 Stockholm and other medals including first place in the category “Producer of Year 2009 Czech Grand Design" awarded on 6 March 2010 by the Czech Republic Design Academy for the project of the limited shoe collection “classic 66”.
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A big part of the “botas” production is exported worldwide. Thanks to adaptation to the latest requirements for shoe production, use of modern technologies for development and production along with the traditional skills of the “shoemakers” of Skuteč, we can guarantee high quality of the produced shoes and it allows us to further develop and achieve success in both the domestic and world market. All the foreign business operation are secured by the parent company BENAL s.r.o. from Prague.
BOTAS a.s. produces and sells sports shoes and accessories for summer and winter sports. It offers hall sports shoes (volleyball, handball, football tennis, squash, tennis, football, gymnastics) in-line skating, cross-country running, tourism and leisure, ice-hockey, figure skating, cross-country skiing and lifestyle shoes “classic 66”. The orders and distribution in the Czech republic are realized by the sales and marketing team in Skuteč with the aid of the regional sales representatives.