Generations of Bally’s collected shoes and they are on display in SchÖnenwerd, Switzerland. Bally is a 164-year-old fashion and leather goods brand best known for its shoes. The museum is in a 18th century manor once owned by Bally and displays famous and historical shoes like 16th century Venetian platforms and Queen Elizabeth II’s gold coronation shoes.
Besides an impressive collection of shoes covering a three thousand year history, what
makes the museum unique is the history of Carl Franz Bally, a silk ribbon manufacturer, that bought his wife French shoes while on business in Paris. He didn’t know her size so he purchased 12 pairs in different sizes. He sold the ones that didn’t fit her at a good profit and the business was born. He started the business from his house and wanted to bring work to SchÖnenwerd, which he did by bringing the manufacturing to that town
Read more from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11…witzerland.html?_r=0
What’s neat to me is he brought jobs to that small Swiss town and created a production facility there, instead of a bigger city.