If you’re a true crime enthusiast or sneakerhead this thrilling museum in Toronto is for you!
It’s common knowledge that fingerprints are used to catch criminals, but Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum is highlighting the role footwear plays in determining and obscuring the whereabouts and identities of those who evade the law.
The Bata Shoe Museum is North America’s only institution dedicated to the display and study of footwear, boasting numerous permanent and rotating exhibits across four galleries.
With nearly 15,000 artifacts in its archives, the museum is home to the world’s largest collection of footwear and has become a hallmark of Toronto’s cultural scene through its longstanding commitment to researching the role of shoes in shaping humanity.
In an exploration of criminality and its ties to footwear, a first-time display of the tools and shoes owned by a mysterious burglar punctuates Exhibit A: Investigating Crime and Footwear.
The exhibit delves into the development of footwear forensics and takes visitors on an intriguing tour through the ways society uses shoes to typecast criminals, how they sometimes paint unfavourable and inaccurate portraits of people, why shoes can be helpful in the quest to catch a suspect, and the creative means by which offenders employ their footwear to sidestep authorities.
“Footwear can be incriminating on multiple levels. The ‘wrong’ choice of shoe can lead to suspicion while footprints left behind can lead to detention. This exhibition explores the wide range of ways in which crime and footwear intersect,” Elizabeth Semmelhack, director and senior curator, Bata Shoe Museum, said in a statement.
Discover why women who wore a particular kind of shoe in the 19th century became associated with sexual promiscuity and were often misnomered as amoral and deviant. Learn the etymology of the term sneaker which has ties to criminal behaviour, and catch a glimpse of a crime kit belonging to one of Britain’s most elusive burglars, Flannelfoot.
Central to the exhibit is the aptly named thief who spent much of the 1920s and 30s taunting London police with a seemingly undetectable spree of home invasions. It took authorities years to trace Flannelfoot’s footsteps because he famously didn’t leave any.
Eventually, it came to light that he would wrap his shoes in flannel to obscure the presence of his footprints, and would taunt police by leaving strips of flannel at the crime scene.
On display for the first time are some of the tools Flannelfoot used to commit his ghostlike crimes, including gadgets he carried to break glass, keys he collected from homes he broke into, and rubber soled shoes he wore to stifle the sound of his footsteps.
Exhibit A: Investigating Crime and Footwear opened on April 18 and will be on display at The Bata Shoe Museum until Fall 2025.
For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
