Botasky

The company Botas (originally Botana) was founded on 4 July 1949. The national enterprise was based on the tradition of shoe-making in the Skuteč region and it mainly produced men’s shoes, as well as ski boots and skates. The company later focused on manufacturing sports shoes. In 1963, Botana made its first shoes under the Botas brand and in 1966 the first models in the CLASSIC line. As early as 1974, Botana offered 230 models of shoes for almost all sports. In 1991, Botana began its collaboration with the international brand Puma. The collaboration resulted in more than 100 models for different sport disciplines. By 1996, it collaborated with such brands as Adidas, Koho, Bauer, Graf, Riedel, as well as Salomon, for which it produced the most technologically demanding sports shoes (for snowboarding, trekking and cross country skiing).

In 2008, students Jan Kloss and Jakub Korouš conceived a project called Classic 66. The timeless lifestyle collection Botas 66 Classic was complemented in 2011 with the lines Botas 66 MID and RUN, whose design was based on 1980s classical Botas shoes. In autumn 2019, however, the company ended their collaboration with Kloss and Korouš.

The company has received many awards, the first of which was in 1972 at a fair in Leipzig. After that, Botas won the Product of the Year award in 2006, awarded by the Design Centre of the Czech Republic, for its hockey jerseys MIRAGE 551 PRO. In 2008, the company Botas won 3^rd place in the competition Czech Grand Design for its project Classic 66. The company also won the Producer of the Year award from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic a year later. Botas shoes (“Botasky”) were also successful in the competition Consumer Superbrands 2015.

The success of Botas shoes is reflected in the fact that its name has become a general term for sports shoes (“botasky”).