Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Opinion:

Don’t shoehorn Steve Madden into one niche

Steve Madden

Shoe designer Steve Madden is celebrating his 25th anniversary this year.

Steve Madden visited Las Vegas in 1981 while working his first shoe convention in the city. He stayed at the Flamingo only because, as he said, “I have a fascination with Bugsy Siegel.”

Madden needed to do some fast shopping on that trip, to buy a white dress shirt to wear with blue jeans. But the Las Vegas of that era was not today’s retail mecca.

“All I wanted was a button-down shirt, and I could not find a store,” Madden recalled from the Steve Madden Ltd. display fortress at the recent Magic Convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center. “I swear to God, the only stores I could find were tuxedo stores. … That wouldn’t happen today.”

The Steve Madden behind the Steve Madden brand is a tough-talking, straight-shooting kind of guy. It’s easy to see why he would be interested in Siegel. Madden famously launched his company 25 years ago by investing $1,100 he made selling shoes from the trunk of his car.

For those interested in nefarious mystique, Madden was locked up for 31 months and released in April 2005 after being convicted of stock manipulation and money laundering.

“I got greedy,” he said. “I got mixed up with the wrong guys, and you lose track of what’s right. It was a terrible experience. It seemed like 200 years.”

But the business he founded has continued to grow, today exceeding $1.3 billion in annual sales. Madden has become something of a pop culture hero, a footwear entrepreneur portrayed by Jake Hoffman (Dustin’s son) in “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

At 57, Madden wears a baseball cap and takes messages on two phones — a new iPhone 6 and a 2003 LG flip phone. He operates five stores in Las Vegas: at Fashion Show mall, the Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes, Las Vegas Premium Outlets at Symphony Park, the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood and Town Square.

Madden is the human embodiment of his brand — in constant demand.

One guest at the Magic booth is recording artist Cassie Ventura, a beautiful young woman who happens to be the girlfriend of rap mogul Diddy.

“I like her; we might do a collab with her,” Madden says, using shorthand for “collaboration.” “She has sold a few records — but not a lot of hits. But Diddy is the closest thing we have to Sinatra, and all the girls who wear Steve Madden are her fans.”

Later, Snooki, of “Jersey Shore” fame, pops in for a photo op.

“My celebrity is so weird,” Madden says. “So many times I’ve played golf with guys who didn’t know my name, but they go home to their wives or daughters and tell them who they golfed with. Then it’s, ‘Oh, my God! I didn’t realize!’ But you sound like a shmuck if you say, ‘Ask any woman about me. They’ll tell you I’m famous.’ You sound like a real (jerk) if you do that.”

Madden once was a voracious reader. No longer.

“I love to read,” he said. “I’ve read books my whole life, and now I struggle to find time. We live in a new world, which we like, for all the complaining.”

Madden still looks to ascend to high fashion with his products, which are impressively designed and high quality but not priced in the Louboutin strata.

“I would love to be stronger in the designer business, the Gucci area, which Steve Madden is not,” he said. “It’s so different, a completely different aesthetic, and I’m not talking just about design. But I make pop shoes. I’m not the cheapest, but I’m not the most expensive. I’m a tactile guy, and that’s a tough, exclusive area. But I’ll try, I’ll tell you that.”

“I never thought I’d be around for 25 years,” Madden continued. “I never thought it would be like this ever.”

He recalled Vegas from decades ago.

“I loved going out and gambling all night and going into a dumpy joint to get steak and eggs or waffles,” he said. “I loved it, just loved it.”

But he needs modern-day Vegas, the one that has evolved into a shopping destination, to succeed in business.

“That’s the story of my life, man,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s exactly it. You can’t have it both ways.”