Footwear scion Thomas A Bata owns over 100 pairs of shoes

The fourth-generation scion of the family that owns Bata Shoe Co has an unhealthy love for shoes. Ask Thomas A Bata, the global chief marketing officer of the Swiss shoe brand, to put a number on his shoe collection, he says with a laugh, “I stopped counting a long time ago. I have two cupboards full of shoes — maybe over 100.”

If that seems much, the 100 pairs don’t count the ones he’s given away. “I store them on racks but they do gather a lot of dust. You have a few pairs of your favourites and the others stay. I give away a few, though I like some too much and can’t part with them.”