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[interviewer] So tell me what you know about Steve Madden, the actual guy.

I didn't even think Steve Madden was a real guy. [laughs]

I just thought it was like a brand.

[reporter] Shoe salesman to fashion mogul,

Steve Madden is one of the biggest names seriously in the game.

[reporter] Without a doubt.

[reporter] With 310 stores in 76 countries,

his his public company is a significant player in the fashion business.

I know probably-- nothing actually.

We take a look at a thriving publicly traded company,

and the guy behind it all one of the bluntest,

least likely CEO's you're ever gonna meet.

Maybe it's like two guys last names put together. I don't know.

Is he from Europe possibly?

[reporter] Shoemaker Steve Madden was arrested on charges of

money laundering and securities fraud.

[reporter] Steve Madden been running for the last--

almost 50 months out of a prison cell.

Is he a "he"? Maybe he's a "she".

He could be gay, but that's all right.

Little bit awkward.

Definitely has some sass.

Maybe like white hair, but a cool white.

Mustache. Dark hair. I don't know.

Maybe close to 40.

[reporter] The shoe is on the other foot for Steve Madden

which just released their third quarter earnings that blew away estimates,

and they say, "You know what? We'll do it again."

I know he was in that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill.

Wolf of Wall Street".

Steve Madden.

[off screen laughs] Steve Madden.

Steve.

-Steve. -Um.

No, I don't know.

I don't really know. [laughs]

We don't know anything about him.

Right. Who the fuck is Steve Madden?

I ask myself that question everyday.

How did my brother do this?

You know, they call me a shoe mogul, so it's funny.

It's kind of an illusion, the whole thing,

and it's just like- this is what I have.

I didn't set out to do this.

And to this day, I struggle with that, you know?

I think, "What am I?

Am I just a great hustler and entrepreneur?

I mean, am I a great businessman?

Am I a designer? Am I an artist?"

I still don't know.

[music plays]

Let's start. Nancy!

Get me Karla on the intercom.

Yes. Hey, is Karla with you?

Working at Steve is like a 24/7 job.

But I think if you're really in the shoe business,

then you never turn off anyway.

[Steve Madden] Can we just sell this fucking shoe already?

Get it done!

It starts a lot of times with spotting something, a concept that he sees.

[Karla Frieders] If he's like I love that shoe.

I love it, I love it, I love it if he's never seen it.

You know, I've actually seen him say, like,

"Let me buy you a new pair of shoes,

and let me take the one off of your foot."

Always on the job, huh?

Always. Always on the grind.

He'll come in and he'll be excited about something like that

and start talking about it, and suggest a last or a material or a shape.

We love this, right?

We need lots of shoes like this.

Let's switch it to two colors.

A black and a gold?

And then we try to take that idea and make it a reality.

You know, it's speed and product.

It's how quickly we can get something made profitably

and get out to our stores as quickly as possible.

That's where you feel the energy.

Is that--? I don't think that--

I'm making the two tones no matter what you say,

so, tough shit.

It's a remarkable thing to be able to build right in your own office.

I really don't like the two tone there.

I just don't know how she wears it.

It's too much shoe.

If we see something not working,

we're capable of changing it around quickly.

Within three or four hours, the shoe is done.

Somebody's taking it right to a store and putting it on a shelf

We want to see the finished product in the stores,

who's buying it? "Oh, look, that girl's trying it on.

Who is that? How old is she?

What do you think?" And you want to listen to what she's saying.

We like sit there and analyze, analyze, analyze.

If we can sell this 8 of 12 on a Saturday in downtown Soho, we know we have a winner.

When we get something out there that doesn't hit the mark,

it costs us a lot of money.

Does that make any sense to anybody?

I don't understand that!

Right! Wait! No one move a muscle.

Tell Rob to get his ass in here.

[phone dialing]

So what happened?

We had one bad shoe.

What shoe is that?

Jesus.

That is so bad that it makes me physically ill.

Did you ever see anything worse in your life?

What the fuck is that?

Fuck the camera, listen to me.

It's just like you went into the shoe business six months ago,

I swear to god.

I'm like watching you,

did you just like enter into an internship program?

I'm trying to learn.

What are you learning? They're fucking six dollars a foot leather.

-How did I know that? -What is there to fucking lea

Jesus.

How would I know that? You had them in the store $149. I didn't know--

I mean, it's unbelievable, I mean, it's-- we-- you know it's--

What are you looking at me for?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Rob Schmertz] What? Say it, John.

I mean you blame me that I don't confirm anything--

face for? I mean you blame me that I don't confirm anything--

Did that happen or it didn't happen?

John, you also know--

We're just behind the eight ball everywhere.

Because I do think that that is the shoe of the year.

What? I think we're getting confused here.

The colors outside of the gold are dogshit.

So if you want to do something about it, do something about it.

-Rob? -I hear you.

You can do it.

[Rachelle Watts] It's really tough,

and then eventually you get over it and you realize

it's because he still gives a shit so much, you know?

And so do we.

Fuck it, it is what it is

Gotta go back to work the next day.

[music plays]

[Indistinct chatter]

Am I still mic'd?

[interviewer] Yeah, you're good to go.

Yeah, this is the kids. So cute.

They're so fucking cute.

Here it is. That's the house I grew up in.

We were in the neighborhood and I said,

do you want to see where Daddy was born?

They're always asking questions about that stuff.

Can you get that? Isn't that awesome?

[slide turning noise]

Steve as a kid was kind of bratty.

Oh, I had that lovely hair.

And obnoxious.

Flowing locks of blondish red hair.

It didn't look like it does now. That's for sure.

I grew up in Cedarhurst, Long Island.

You know, in my neighborhood it was mostly Jewish folks.

I was really the only half-Jewish guy that I knew.

Steve was one of the first kids I met when I moved to the neighborhood.

And then the same group of kids that we met, we--

it was the same group of kids we were friends with

all the way through middle school, high school, and after.

[school bell ringing]

I was a bit of a pain in the ass.

You know, I was an annoying kid.

He antagonized.

I'd come into town, he'd be in high school.

We'd go out and play golf.

The guys in front of us were too slow,

he'd just hit the ball at them.

And they start screaming at him,

and he'd scream back at them.

You know, I was told I was a fuck up and I was acting that out.

But I knew that I had a sort of a- an artistic spirit, for sure.

But you know, I didn't really understand it.

With two parents from the depression,

they talked about it all the time.

I was brought up with the fear of being broke,

you know, we could lose all our money--

it was very prevalent in our house.

My father beat it into me, you know,

"It's all about being successful in business,

and you know, the winners are the entrepreneurs."

To my family, being creative was being able to fix a television set.

The sort of bias against creativity,

especially in my house.

Just wasn't nurtured, you know, or anything?

It was always like, you shouldn't even go down that road.

They thought it was all about hard work, you know?

So in an effort to straighten me out,

my dad said I had to go to work.

So I got a job at a shoe store called Toulouse and worked in the basement.

It was such a creative time in the shoe business when I started.

Fashion explosion were platform shoes.

[music plays]

It was the early 70s,

there was this whole kind of androgynous,

bisexual sort of thing that was happening.

It was from England. They called it Glam rock.

Actually it was men that inspired the platform movement,

more than the women.

I love them, they were great.

They were like theatrical.

And I would try them on in the basement,

and I wanted to see what it was like.

It was like, "Whoa! Ya know, Shoes! Holy smokes."

I worked for a shoe store, but that it was in that kind of thing,

that's where I come from.

I wanted to get up on the floor and sell shoes.

I just made my way up there. I didn't ask

And they were forced to keep me up there,

I was a good seller.

A girl would come and you would help pick the shoes

shoes that this girl would wear everyday.

You were part of designing their lifestyle and their wardrobe.

Totally got a rush out of it.

And I got obsessed with shoes.

Trying to figure out why something became big--

like why something became popular.

I realized you could bring some creativity to the business side of things.

You know, so I found something I was really good at,

and then I had to let it go because I had to go to college.

As he got into college and he got into,

let's say his-- 19/20 years old, and I was 30 years old.

We started hanging out a little together

because he went to University of Miami.

And I was living in Coconut Grove.

[Steve] Where I was from you had to go to college.

Everybody went to college,

but I was a disaster there.

While in-- if you were in Florida,

it was the craziest of crazy.

You know, it was-- it was amazing.

We started hanging out together went to clubs together.

I used to visit him on Christmas vacations for college.

[interviewer] What was Steve like at that time?

Stoned.

[interviewer] All the time?

A lot.

I was having the time of something.

It was pre-AIDS.

Drugs everywhere.

Jewelry was a cocaine spoon.

[John Madden] I had a few kind of wild girls.

Being a married guy, I would still go out every night.

Meet a girl and...

[interviewer] You would meet a girl and do what?

I don't think we should get into that-- that story.

But you've seen porn, right?

You've seen DPs.

We had some good times.

My father said I was fucking around.

I was fucking around. He wouldn't tolerate it

He yanked my ass right out of school.

It occurred to me with my attention deficit disorder,

no one knew about that stuff.

[interviewer] Instead of ADD you would just say--

Well, you were lazy or cognitively indolent.

I mean, sloppy.

You know, they didn't know it had to do with some sort of learning disorder.

[interviewer] Right.

And I was very smart in some ways

and very spaced out in some ways, you know?

It's hard to square it.

It really hit me when I went to college.

What happens is you ultimately self-medicate and that's much more dangerous.

I think a lot of people with ADD are prone to,

you know, substance abuse.

So I went back home,

shoe horn sticking out of my pocket,

back on the floor.

This was it, this is where I learned the shoe business,

Jildor.

It's the store that was founded by this guy Jack Bienenfeld,

and he was one of the greatest men I ever knew.

Just the way he ran his business,

the principles that he had.

They were so unbelievable.

[interviewer] Do you remember your way around here?

[Steve] I do, of course.

[interviewer] Lead the way. [laughs]

Yes.

My fundamentals today were from those two years

working on a stool

dealing with these hysterical Jewish women from Long Island.

Oi yoi yoi.

We used to have a term at 34.

Style 34 was a bad--

like a customer that was like impossible, you know?

So you'd say, "Show us--", you'd say,

"Show us style 34".

That means you knew that she was bad, don't waste your time.

There were a lot of tricks that we used though,

you could put a tongue pad in a shoe.

Here they're stretching the foot of the boot.

[laughs]

They're stretching it.

Shoe stores don't have this stuff anymore.

I only made it to this office when I was in trouble.

So there was a woman, I sold her a pair of shoes,

and I put like four pads in it to make it fit.

Like, you're really only supposed to put one pad in it.

If you have to put four or five pads, it's not her size.

She returned the shoe like two weeks later,

so Jack calls me up to his office, he goes--

he holds me up the shoes, pads hanging from it.

"We don't sell shoes like this here."

It's just combat pay, man.

I mean, you really learn how to sell.

I see people working hard at retail today,

and I know it's the hardest work.

It's so fucking hard. I really tip my hat to them.

So you know what's really cool? The velvet ones.

Do you have the velvet too?

I like the velvet. I'm really into that.

[customer] Do you want to do the velvet?

Well, I just want you to see it.

I like the velvet one.

That's my favorite shoe.

He's a good salesman.

I am. I used to work here.

-Oh, really? -Long time ago, yeah.

Get them the shoes, will ya? Before they walk out.

I dig it. I like that a lot.

And also this is cute too for her.

She may not be ready for that.

All the guys my age

were going into the city and, you know,

working in the garment center

or working stock brokers or whatever, and you know...

getting on the railroad.

It was like a-- you know,

and here I was in the town like-- you know--

stuck in the town.

But anyway, it was time to get into the city.

I was ready.

[music plays]

I got this great job, a great opportunity at L.J. Simone.

It was a tiny little company.

I got to do every job in the shoe business,

from shipping shoes to designing shoes

to selling shoes, obviously.

It was a great experience.

So I moved to the city,

and you know, it was everything I thought it would be, blew my mind.

Just blown away by this wave of energy,

and the Village was where I belonged my whole life.

You know, everybody's a bit demented,

everybody's a bit demented, you

These are my friends.

That's Alan Smith. That's Brian Frank and that's Danny Porush.

Look at that hair.

Strawberry blonde hair.

Go to the clubs, get high.

Go try and find girls.

get high. Go try and find girls.

[Steve] Club scene was going

and I think it was post Studio 54.

It was an amazing time, it was the early 80's.

I would work like crazy, and then get blasted.

Lot of cocaine. Cocaine was a terrible drug.

Ooh...

All this stuff and you just grind your teeth and sweat

and keep taking more,

and you know, it lead me to other things too.

I think our crew was more Quaaluded than cocaine.

Let's talk about a Quaalude for a second.

When you first took it, you got this tingle all over your body

and you instantly

loved everybody.

It was really nothing I've ever experienced-- anything like it in my life.

And some of us got in trouble with it,

and I got in trouble with it.

I was a doorman at his building,

I used to do the night shift from 12pm to 8am in the morning,

and one morning I met him.

But he was naked.

[Tommy Kane] He used to be like wild druggy

doing like Quaaludes and coke and stuff.

And he told me one time

he was so high on Quaaludes that went he went to sleep,

he had woken up--

but he wasn't in his bed,

he had woken up and he was nude in the hallway.

For some reason he got locked out.

[Tommy] And he didn't know what to do, so he just-- he went,

he pushed the elevator, went down to the lobby.

Just held his little thing, walked up and said,

"I need the key to the room."

[laughs]

So I had to go get the master key and open it.

Yeah.

And I was always like, that's the guy I want to hang out with.

Hello! This is Howard Cosell talking about Brian Frank.

Can't see a goddamn thing that thing is in my eyes.

I've known Brian 20 years,

he was louse then, he's a louse now.

[Brian Frank] He was uncontrollably high.

He'd fall on his face. He'd facing down a lot of places.

Magnanimous friends. Smoke in my face.

[Eddie Lama] His zeal for things has been his success,

but also his downfall.

Because he went with that same zeal

to drugs and alcohol.

So he was-- he wasn't like a weekend warrior, you know?

That wasn't it.

He was full-time barbarian.

[Brian] And then Steve just kind of slipped and couldn't get his legs under him.

[David Cristobal] He used to be out really late.

Nice girls, nice girls used to go up to his room.

One day I think he was so high,

he passed out and then the girl came down.

"He's dead! He's dead!"

[siren wailing]

Crazy, those days.

[Steve] I had like five DWI's.

And I lost my license.

We can help him. This is bigger than us.

[interviewer] Was there a specific point that you realized

that you were an addict?

Well, I didn't--

I sort of knew after a while.

People used the word '"party".

You know, "your partying days."

I didn't really have much of a party.

You know, I was alone getting blasted,

that was my party.

That's where it took me, you know?

You get this substance in your body

and you can't stop doing it.

And that's what it is.

And there are other people that have a drink or two or not

or they don't think about it,

and life goes on and--

you know, but-- that's not the case for the alcoholic/addict.

Which is why I had to get sober.

You know when you're miserable enough,

you know perhaps you can change.

I used to go and hang out with a lot of people

with the same kind of problem

or disease or whatever, you know--

substance abuse-- whatever they call it.

I think the drugs and the alcohol just diminished him

as a person, you know?

As a thinker, as a personality,

and his sobriety suited him well.

He really just took off,

you know, as himself.

Yeah, it was fresh.

It was like being reborn.

Your whole life changes, you know?

[Steve] I was ready to do my own thing, you know?

I worked for L.J. Simone for eight years.

I just, you know, I quit one day

and went to work in my own business

And I was like, "What did I just do?"

[laughs]

"Am I crazy?"

One morning he saw me, you know, getting in my car.

He saw the red car and he asked me,

"Do you want to work for me as a driver during the day?"

Um... "What the hell. Let me go with Steve Madden."

[Steve] Put $1,100 dollars in the bank and we started.

I made the shoes, and believe it or not, it was in a little garage

garage in the building I'm at now.

I would design and sell it.

Nothing matters until you sell it.

And then I made a little shoe called the Marilyn.

It was just a little slide

and if you wore it under jeans it looked like a boot, but it really was backless.

It was what they call a 'mule',

closed toe open back shoe.

Marilyn we used to sell everywhere, everywhere.

He liked country music.

He used to sing in the car.

When he was crazy about one shoe

he would put it on the dashboard.

Feel the shoe, feel the leather,

smell it, and he said,

"This is going to be a home run."

I'm looking for inspiration.

It's not so much 'the' pair of shoes,

it's how they're wearing it.

I can tell if it's a hit or not.

I can almost tell by the way they walk

how good it is.

I sold to anybody I could.

Shoe stores. Department stores.

Clothing stores.

I was really doing everything out of this little red car.

Basically yeah, that was our office.

Cash flow is so important in a business,

I mean, even when you're starting out.

You know, you can't have like 25 cents less than what you need,

and you have to manage that.

I got this call from Danny.

You know, he was my childhood pal.

Danny said we're looking for companies to raise money for,

like "Dude, we'll raise the money you need to build a business."

I didn't really believe him.

It was so far fetched.

He said he's got this genius behind this company named Jordan.

He's the mastermind.

[reporter] Jordan Belfort.

The wolf of Wall Street

was a product of the bull market of the 90s.

The times were ripe for guys like Belfort and Porsch.

Early 90s,

it was ra-ra Wall Street.

Young people opening up brokerage houses.

What's come to be known as this 'boiler room era'

of stock brokerage houses.

There's a lot of guys with the phone calling right now

in a few months, you could be making a lot of money.

[Steve] And Jordan created this aura about it.

His guys were just i n awe of him.

[reporter] He was able to take industry outsiders, high school dropouts

and mere overnight, turn them into million dollar sales machines.

[Alan Novich] They were drinkers and druggies,

they really had this great Long Island party lifestyle.

And what these guys presented to the entrepreneur

was so intoxicating.

See the Stratton guys were like on yachts

fucking whacked.

And it was the cult of Jordan.

They certainly captured that on the film, "The Wolf of Wall Street."

Nobody's ever done what they did.

The girls and the drugs.

Sodom and Gomorrah.

And all this money.

Gym bags full of cash.

Millions of dollars getting passed back and forth.

[Steve] I mean it was crazy lifestyle.

And I was sober when that was happening, watching.

I never know what was going on inside.

If I knew I would go in, too.

[laughs]

[Steve] I did what I had to do.

We needed that liftoff.

So we took the money and we really did use it,

and we built a business with it.

[music playing]

[announcer] Steve Madden.

Steve Madden.

Hey, we're over here.

This was my first store, and those signs.

It's one of my Village guys'.

He painted them, we put them on the outside of the store.

That shoe was the first shoe I sold in this store.

No one was down here, and--

What did you guys get at Topshop?

Did you guys-- no shoes?

-Clothes? -Clothes.

-We can here for shoes. -Yeah.

Oh, okay. Good.

So I had the store in the front and the office in the back,

and I was trying to like, get every nickel out of it.

And I had it in my mind that I wanted a store,

I thought it would be good for the brand,

but I had no idea what I was doing.

When I started it was just Steve and I.

We sat across the desk from each other.

We had an office the size of this room.

I answered phones, I did customer service.

I was the only one that did anything.

You know, with the billing and the shipping,

so if I wasn't there,

it wasn't getting done.

She would do anything and people liked her.

And she understood what I was doing.

We started with a total of four employees.

Steve, Wendy,

David Cristobal, and myself.

I was so lucky to find this man.

He organized the financials and I paid attention to the shoes,

and we are so not alike.

This is called Mahalakshmi.

The goddess of money.

When I opened this building,

and I brought the religious things here,

and that's why I put the statue of the goddess.

Which brings the success of the company.

[Steve] I wasn't frivolous with the money at all.

You know, as soon as I got it, it was like, sell more shoes.

Hire more people.

A real firm was taking shape.

In the beginning, we really weren't structured at all.

There was a lot of juggling as always, which is normal here.

[Tommy] Because it was so small and growing

and unprofessional, that was the craziness.

We would have like rat droppings all over the computers.

Remember that?

And then he would try to get me to bring my kittens

to get rid of the rats.

You know, I was an outsider when I started, right?

So there's like, in every business,

there's like the establishment and then there's the newcomers.

I sort of relish that, I really like that.

[Mickey Boardman] You know in the 90s,

it was a time when there were great American designers,

but it was very elitist.

Steve to the more high fashion people

might be a little bit, you know like--

the hillbilly cousin.

The fashion and I think just the media industry, at the time,

did not take teenagers seriously.

[Andrea Linett] It was Vogue tells you what to wear, what not to wear.

Harper's Bazaar tells you what to wear and what not to wear.

Sassy Magazine was kind of

an anomaly in the magazine world.

Seriously, we were not a fashion magazine

The only people that took us seriously

were like, the cool indie people, thank god.

The 90s were kind of a coming together time of fashion and music.

[Daianara] It's almost the way like grunge was big

back in the 90s when we first started.

Shoes had a more masculine look to them,

they were a little bit rougher and tougher.

And it's because of that whole grunge phase that music went through--

So our inspiration really starts from there

and Steve really is very music focused.

Like the music business,

it's not enough to just make a record that is great

that no one buys.

I knew that I had to come up with a hit in order to make it.

And then I made a little Mary Jane, we called it the 'Mary Lou'.

We made a shoe that was for a market that wasn't being served

It was truly young fashion, the field was sort of empty.

This was a big look.

It was a very babydoll, little girl kind of a sexy thing.

Historically, you would have had the luxury high-end designers

Historically, you would have had the luxury high-end designers

and then the lower price point brands

and they would have been completely separate.

Steve Madden was the first person to democratize on-trend shoes

He's the grandfather of this whole movement.

To me, it was like he was giving people who didn't

have the chance to have all the stuff

that was being dictated to them "If you don't have this, you're a loser."

[Aya Kanai] He wanted to make sure that fashionable shoes

were also affordable for the real girl customers

who wanted took great too.

That's particularly something that the fashion establishment is super-duper touchy about.

[Tommy] But I'd even ask, "How come you're never in Vogue or Bazaar,

Elle, all these things?"

He's like, "Those people hate me."

[Steve] It was an older industry

and we sort of disrupted it.

This is the shoe that was made famous in "The Wolf of Wall Street"

The Mary Lou. I have the--

the Mary Jane is followed by the-- the kid.

Hoffman played me and he did a good job.

Jordan, look what I caught in the lobby, I caught a genius.

Enter, Steve Madden.

Red hot lady's footwear and impresario.

And thanks to Danny, we were taking his company public

[Steve] Danny said it was time to go public

"You go to go talk to the broker's.

You got to tell them your story,

and get them all pumped up and it'll be great."

And that's what I did.

And that's that famous scene.

That's why they got to see your face.

You get 'em fired up and they push the shit out of this stock, okay?

[Leonardo DiCaprio] Our job was to get them worked up.

[Steve] It's like amazing how they got this stuff.

It was pretty accurate.

You know, Jonah Hill playing Danny

and DiCaprio playing Belfort,

they did an amazing job.

I don't know if I was that dorky.

For those of you who don't know me,

my name's Steve Madden.

-Yeah, we know who you are. -[laughs]

Your name is on the box.

[all laughing]

-Show them the shoes. -Okay, yeah.

Anyway, you know just-- this shoe. It''s pretty cool.

This is the Mary Lou

-which is the shoe that put me on the map. -[hooting and hollering]

Without it, I wouldn't be here.

Believe it or not though,

the Mary Lou is actually the same as the Mary Jane, but it's black leather.

[Steve] You know, I was talking about shoes

and these guys just went crazy.

They were heckling me.

You know, you've got like 500 animals heckling.

Let's give it up for Steve Madden and his awesome Mary Lou.

-Hold that up, hold that up, hold that up proud. -[Steve] Jordan was amazing.

They were just-- he was like--

you know like a dictator.

All knowing leader of a country.

I want you to ram Steve Madden's stock

down your client's throats until they fucking choke on it.

Until they choke on it and they buy 100,000 shares.

That's what I want you to do.

You be ferocious. You be relentless

[cheering]

You be telephone fucking terrorists.

[all cheering]

Then let's knock this mother fucker out of the park!

[all cheering]

At the time, it went public I think he had one store in Soho.

. I mean, that's not a business typically that anybody takes public.

That's a Stratton-Oakmont hallmark.

I'm talking to my brother on the phone,

stock was coming out at $4.00.

And it goes from $4.00 to $18.00

in about an hour and a half.

What? I've never seen anything like this in my life.

I want to know where this is coming from.

Twenty-two million dollars in three fucking hours!

[laughs]

Can you believe this?

I can't tell you how much I have to thank Danny.

He really took the reins this year and made a huge success.

More money, more money, more money.

[Steve] It was like holy smokes, this is insane.

Real money.

I went from an eviction notice to a private jet

in like 200 days, which is crazy.

So I had to play ball with these guys.

[Leonardo] Danny and I secretly owned 85% of Steve Madden shoes

Which legally speaking was a big, no-no.

But we'd get filthy fucking rich if our troops got behind it.

Sometimes they would do some transactions under his name,

but the transactions were really for themselves.

You know, they're buying and selling it for me

so how could it be illegal?

You know, I'd become part of the scheme.

Because I didn't care about anything but building the business.

Oh, no.

This is really cute. Here, could you put this on?

? I love this. That's a great shoe.

I think that this can be the next big-- a really big sandal for us.

You know why, because it's got taste and style.

It's a problem.

[laughs]

It's tasteful.

God forbid we should make a tasteful shoe!

[Daianara] Fashion was moving at such a fast pace.

And our biggest goal of the day would be,

"How much higher do you think we could make this heel?

How much higher do you think we could make this platform before Steve like kills us?"

There were some crazy shoes.

I mean, some crazy platforms.

You know kind of the gender-bending shoes of the 70s rock stars.

It was a very exciting time and we've--

and as a matter of fact we've taken a lot of those things from that era

and made them now in our company.

It's an instinct,

You know you wake up in the morning

and you don't have it in your closet,

so you come in and try and make it.

It's pretty much if we're looking for it, somebody else is too.

He had this incredible system of test and react.

Which is exactly what we tried to do in the record business.

[reporter] Madden's New York headquarters features a sample factory

where new ideas are cobbled by hand.

[reporter] He found he could develop a prototype

and sell a small test run in his own stores

before deciding if it was right for the mass market.

If they reacted, he would go and order them in big bulk.

And that would eliminate the issue of getting product back,

because he already knew that he had a hit.

These shoes can be there first before anybody else.

[reporter] Though many times smaller,

Madden's edge over competitors like Nine West

is speed to market.

Little by little people started paying more attention to what he was doing.

I got very interested in Steve--

with those funny fashion ads of the big heads

and the little skinny, sexy body and the big shoes.

We wanted to do something that wasn't like other fashion companies

with the beautiful girls and the poses

so we did something a little unique.

There was nothing, nothing, nothing like it.

So it was instant.

The second it went up. Boom.

The subject of many discussions

because it's somewhat controversial.

The fact that we were making them look like little hookers,

I was like, "These parents have to be upset"

But he was like, "No, I know what I'm doing."

Anti-fashion is what it was.

It kept him in a separate place identity wise--

he actually built his identity.

It definitely was one of the more memorable campaigns of the time.

Throughout the 90s they were--

you know, they were the talk of the town.

First thing's first.

This shoe on the wedge, we're going to make

and we're going to sell this to every store in America.

It's fantastic.

[Sam Edelman] I remember he had some monster shoes.

Big bottom shoes.

And then he had a shoe called 'The Slinky'.

And 'The Slinky' was huge.

[Andrea] It was pixie girls in leggings,

shuffling around with maybe a fun toe nail polish.

Like they were everywhere.

All of the sudden every girl I spoke to knew who Steve Madden was.

I was like, "Wow, how did this happen. It's so amazing."

[reporter] Steve Madden, the number one man for making the dopest shoes on the planet.

I watched from afar how Steve built up this incredible business.

I mean, I, like everybody else, said,

"Wait a second, this is Steven Madden".

[Steve] I just felt like I could do anything.

You know, we were like this force

that was quicker and smarter than the other armies.

Tonight, knowing what your customers want before the competition does.

Former stock boy, turned self-proclaimed "shoe warrior".

Steve Madden has no intention of slowing down.

[reporter] His retail stores average a 1,000 dollars in annual sales per square foot.

Double the usual turnover for stores their size.

I owned my own shoe store.

Steve used to come every single weekend

and he bought the store and then, I guess,

in turn bought me

I never gave him a discount, just so you know.

[reporter] Hot shoes have helped Madden's sales shoot from five million in 1993

to an estimated 83 million dollars last year.

[reporter] Revenues streaking from 59 million to 163 million

between 1997 and 1999,

and profits more than tripling in that same time period.

[Steve] I needed to get bigger and bigger

bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

You know, because that's what you do.

Those kind of profits, it was another kind of drug.

[Daianara] We were just moving so quickly

and it's like, he became a little bit of a rock star.

Like, people would come up to him, "Oh, can I have your autograph?

Can I have this? And I'd tease him, I'd go--"

"Oh, Steve, you're such a rock star."

And he was like, "Leave me alone, let me enjoy my moment,

it's my moment."

Christinas and Britneys and Janet Jacksons all wear our shoes

[hostess] The man of the evening, Mr. Steve Madden.

You know, that old Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame-

we're up to about six hours now.

[reporter] There are obviously natural concerns that the company

might become really too dependent on one guy.

That being you.

What happens to the company, god help us, if Steve Madden

walks out here on Broadway and gets hit by a bus.

[laughs]

Gloom and doom.

-Bad stuff, right? -It's bad stuff.

Um, we're [bleeps]

[reporter] Last year he did pay more than four million dollars

to former Stratton-Oakmont execs

to settle claims stemming from his association with the outfit.

I wanted to put that part of the company's history behind us

and pay those guys off and moved on.

[Steve] The shenanigans with those guys had ended in the middle of the 90s,

and then the company went on to just be explosive because I had this amazing,

you know, company,

but all the while I know my past

is going to rear it's ugly head at any moment.

[clicking]

When the first wave of the Stratton guys were-- were arrested,

arrested my mom called me from Bocca, and she said,

"I heard they're talking."

[reporter] Mr. Dan Porush and Jordan Belfort have pleaded guilty

to variety of securities fraud.

There have been persistent concerns, Steve,

and federal investigations in their activities

might become a federal investigation into you.

Any thought? Any truth to those?

-Is there a reason for the concern? -No, they took us public and---

but we don't think we'll be tainted by that brush.

[Steve] Your mind is telling you one thing,

but inside internally, you know--

you know that something is not quite right.

And then the whole thing came crashing down.

[Steve] And there was nothing I could do at that point.

I'll let you take a picture, relax.

Relax, guy. You can take a picture, I'm not hiding.

Relax.

[Charles Koppelman] There was a story that said that Steve Madden

was going to be indicted.

[reporter] The flamboyant CEO surrendered to federal authorities

facing multiple charges of conspiracy, securities fraud and money laundering.

From manipulating 22 initial public offerings

including his own company,

allegedly making illegal gains of seven million dollars.

[reporter] Belfort says that Madden acted as his front.

Selling shares on his command and giving him a big cut of the profits.

But at least Madden's company was real.

[Johanna Berkman] The headline grabbing person was Steve.

Jordan Belfort wasn't famous before he committed his crimes,

where as Steve was already a really well known person.

And therefore it's more valuable.

Charges could have called for as much as 25 years federal prison.

[reporter] Steve, do you have any comment about the charges?

[Steve] You hope against hope that it was going to go away.

Or that they'll have bigger fish to fry.

You know, you can sometimes dance between the raindrops and not get wet.

What about the fact that there are four other people with the companies

who have already said that you...

The world is falling down on you,

you don't know what you're doing,

and you're just like...

you're just trying to get through that day, you know?

Are you worried this is gonna affect your business?

So, Steve, what do you do now?

Where do you go from here?

No comment, okay?

[Joel Winograd] They wanted him to wear a wire against people that he knew for years,

friends, to try to implicate them

and he wouldn't do it.

Even though I wasn't a snitch,

I certainly look back and have maybe

some understanding of the guys that did tell.

Because they really-- they can torture you.

The government was very tough.

Thank you very much.

[Steve] It wore me out, you know,

it was like the constant court going back and forth

and lead to a relapse.

I just threw in the towel. I started getting loaded again.

[Joel] We went back to court at some future date

and sentenced Steve to 41 months.

It was devastating to him.

[Phil Pine] Before he went away,

we had a sales meeting out in the Hamptons,

and it was about 20 of us.

It was just a good feeling that he knew

that there were people behind him.

-It sucked. -Yeah, it was awful.

It was scary. We didn't know what was going to happen.

I had this great family

that I was building, this great company.

I thought at the time, you know what?

I may not have a family of children

because I've got this family here.

And I know it's different, but they were like a family.

Steve took the biggest sacrifice for the company.

Hands down.

He did what it took for the company to survive,

and in doing that, he took a massive hit personally.

And then the next day he was gone.

[Steve] Boom. You're there.

And bam, it all changes.

My greatest fear was going to prison,

and I did go to prison.

So my greatest fear became realized.

It was worse than I thought.

They handcuffed you, and you have to change into like an orange jumpsuit,

they strip search you, stick a glove up your ass,

all this crazy stuff.

It was really bad.

And I got up on the bunk, the top bunk,

and I looked up at the ceiling and I said,

"How am I going to do this shit?

How am I going to survive this?"

I wasn't pissed,

I was sad.

It was just the heartbreak of life going on outside

and you were just dead.

You know, the world was moving on

and people were just living their lives

and you were just stuck.

[Eric Harris] I met Steve in lock up.

He walks up to me just like--

out of nowhere and says,

"How is it out there?"

First of all, I was like, "Oh, back up."

So he was like, "Yeah, my bad, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

And he was like, "How is it?"

I said, "It's cool, it's straight. You all right."

I come to find out we were roommates.

My job wasn't to make shoes.

My job was to get through this.

[Amelia Newton Varela] Our sales started plummeting.

We had meetings on our own,

and was like, "All right, how are we going to handle--

yeah, how are we going to change this?

How quickly can we get fresh shoes and keep hitting it.

And to make sure that we nailed the right style."

And we just kept struggling.

The ball dropped. The world stops.

That world out there is no longer yours anymore, you know?

So you got to get content on what's going on in there, you know?

Everybody just called me "Big Swole".

"Big Swole, Big Swole, Big Swole."

That's why a line of people on the compound used to want to know me,

because I was probably one of the strongest people on the compound.

He introduced himself to me, we talked a little bit, you know,

he kept saying, Steve Madden, Steve Madden.

. I'm like, "Okay, I never heard of Steve Madden."

He's like, "Man, I'm the shoe guy."

One time he was actually waiting on me

Sitting on my bed.

And I said, "Hey man. You know the prison rule,

you find a man sitting on a man's bed, right?" [laughs]

He's like, "No, what is it?"

"If you sit on a man's bed, you want to be his girlfriend."

[laughs]

He's like, "No." I said, "Okay, then sit in the chair."

[laughs]

[Steve] I met a lot of great guys.

Guys who fucked up, you know,

but were good guys.

You know, he adapted that,

you know he learned all the little slang lingo cause he was into that.

he just wanted to learn everything.

Boy, he was a character. [laughs]

[Steve] I just liked being around them, I liked their energy

and they were very helpful. Lot of guys, you know?

There was a big thing about running the business from prison.

Like, "He's really running the business from prison."

Which is crazy. You can't run a business from prison.

And that's how I got the job here.

I don't know if we should put this on tape or not--

He said, "You know what, what I'm thinking is,

why don't you come to work for me?

You could use my office.

You can use my secretary,

and come see me and come tell me what's going on at work."

And he said, "I've got the perfect, perfect position for you."

I said, "What's that?"

He says, "I'm going to make you the Head of International Sales."

I said, "That's great! That's great. Why are you doing that?"

He says, "Because we don't have any international sales,

you cannot fuck it up, you don't know anything about shoes

and so you can't screw it up.

So you're in charge of that."

You can't run a business from prison.

People can talk to you about business,

but my business you have to create you have to make shoes,

you have to talk to people.

You can't do that.

So, I thought, let's give them something to talk about.

When Steve was in jail, I used to get requests from the marketing people.

They're like, "Steve wants to know if you could hide little messages

like his jail cell number in the ad

It was kind of inspired by Sgt. Pepper.

The Beatles used to do stuff like that.

They would put like a secret message in.

And you know, so I decided to give a shout out to these people that I was with,

these great guys.

Once we did this big ad, there was like

Ferris wheels and stuff, like a Coney Island shot.

And we had to put in like, the hot dog vendor,

this guy-- every little thing in there was some guy

who some prison cell mate.

He brought me a magazine, he said, "Look, man".

I said, "Man, anybody can put somebody in a magazine,

that don't make you famous, you know?

It just make a guy a couple of dollars. You know to put you--"

He's like, "No man, I'm telling you, I'm famous, I'm famous."

See this? F-R-E-E Steve.

Free Steve.

I said, "Keep him in jail. Don't free his ass."

I said, "Listen, I don't care how much money you have.

. Right now, you in here.

So you have zero dollars.

Just like everybody else."

I ran a store inside of prison.

Everything the commissary had, I had it.

Yeah, Mackerel was the currency.

[Steve Madden] Mackerel. Fish.

You know, that was the currency in prison.

They're delicious. I mean, you know--

for somebody in prison they're delicious.

It's not like, lobster. 2

I mean, I had people from all of the dorms coming to see Head.

He's like, "Man, this guy's-- this is amazing."

He gave me some pointers.

He made me think of ways that I can expand.

And it worked out.

So I had to figure out how could I corner the market on Mackerel?

So I figured it out, and I ended up with hundreds of Mackerel.

Guy would bring me cereal from the kitchen, I give him a Mackerel.

If I wanted to get my laundry done, I paid the guy a mackerel.

I became the mackerel king.

Steve started teaching a class.

So I taught a little business class.

I tried to reach out to some of the guys there.

They had standing room only because,

you know, everybody came to his class.

And that's what I was really trying to tell them.

Like, "You guys that are here,

you probably were successful dealing crack

or whatever it was.

So take that entrepreneurial skill.

Find a product that's legal. And sell it.

And you could do it.

You guys are all smart."

And most of them were very smart.

Very smart guys.

When you in prison, right, you want somebody to be there.

You understand? You want somebody to be in your corner.

So, you know-- and once you've been gone for so long,

friends tend to fade off, you know?

Money begins to slow down.

So you have to do what you have to do.

You have to take care of yourself.

You have a collect call from...

"Steve Madden, can you hear me?"

an inmate at Coleman Correctional Facility.

Do you accept the charges?

I got a call from someone saying that Steve wants to see you this weekend.

And I had no idea why he would want to see me

That's when I realized I had never been alone with him before.

[Steve] Yeah, we liked each other

We always liked each other, you know?

We always got a kick out of each other.

So there was that.

She had a nice countenance.

A face to the world. You know--

She came to see him a lot.

You know, in the federal facilities, it's visit five days a week.

Out of the five she was there maybe three.

That's a lot.

You know, flying from New York.

I remember when he kissed me the first time ever.

In the cafeteria, the vending machines on the side.

The families visiting and it was so scary,

I wanted to run.

But I was in prison.

Then I get a letter of the top ten reasons why the kiss meant nothing.

And I just laughed at it because I saw what it meant, he was scared.

Man, he was like, "Man, why am I starting to develop feelings for Wendy?"

I said, "Ah, come on, you're probably just horny, man."

[laughs]

He did throw something out there about

"I don't know, maybe Wendy might be the one."

[Wendy Ballew] When he proposed to me,

it was kind of like he stuttered it out

in a story about

wanting to spend the rest of his life with me

and he goes, "I guess what I'm asking you is to marry me."

And I said, "Yes."

Many times I look back and I'm grateful for that moment,

and think, "Well, you know--

if I wasn't in prison I wouldn't have had that moment."

Of course I could have done 20 days

and had that moment on the 15th day.

That would have been good.

[Amelia] And she married him.

Oh, my God.

I married him.

[Daianara] It's so crazy.

[Steve] It was such a joy to be out

It was an amazing period in my life.

I got married and had a family.

I just thought maybe, in my line of work

people would forgive and forget

And I'd be able to move on, you know?

And get a second chance.

I had a sense that, "Oh, my God, I'm free to do this,

Let's not squander it."

Wendy on my side was very helpful

I just thought, I'll get back to work and we'll see what happens.

Is this one of the new ones?

That one?

What happened to that shoe? It died.

But I did fear being out of touch with the styles

and not being able to put my finger on the winners

because so much of styling and design is context, you know?

So I was out.

[Rob] He said to me,

"It's going to take me some time to get back into it."

[Amelia] There was a shift happening. Styling changed.

We went from--

Which he predicted by the way, he totally predicted this.

[Amelia] Yeah. Really, young chunkier and younger junior type shoes

and it was becoming more dressy.

Pointy toe. Something that at Steve Madden, we haven't done.

When you would see young Hollywood

wearing a $2,000 shoe,

real America wants the look at the same time.

[Steve] The shoes are not selling like they were.

They'd canceled a ton of shoes.

They just told me.

They just canceled a lot of shoes, yeah

And that's how I know, because it's not my look.

So I don't have a feel for that.

I know it's fabulous,

you know, I know it sells like crazy, but--

And then you think, well,

"God, I'm not creative at all.

What have I done?

[laughs]

What have I done? I don't know anything.

I'm just talking."

You know, and then you figure out a way to put it all together, you know.

He went back to his old tricks of just like,

what is she wearing, what's happening on the street.

[Sam] The reality is if you're a true shoe guy,

all you do is look at feet

You're looking at their shoes, where did they get them.

Everything is about shoe, shoe, shoe, shoes.

I heard the other day he was at Nordstrom's for two days.

Sitting on a couch,

you know, watching the people buy the shoes.

That's his system, he likes that.

When we're in stores and Steve walks up to women

and just starts talking to them about their shoes.

They're all like, "Who is this guy?"

This is my store.

He goes, "You know, when I was young,

they thought it was cool. Like I was hitting on them."

Thank you.

"Now they just think I'm a creepy old man

[laughs]

That shoe is beautiful.

I haven't seen sport shoes like that in a long time.

There's a lot of designers in the world that are really good at what they do,

but they sort of just sit and draw it and wait for somebody to--

and we're hands on.

He's digging it up,

we're back here trying to hammer it together.

All right, that's good.

All right! Sally forth!

[Alan] All the buyers wanted the shoes.

The reputation was that Steve couldn't miss.

[Steve] I've created a lot of shoes,

but I'm more of like an executive producer

I'm thinking about it all the way through the end.

You know, I'm thinking, "Okay, gonna sell it, it's gonna sit here.

How am I going to make it? What am I going to make it for?

How am I going to make it so a lot of girl's can buy it?

And I'm going to make money?"

It's like a personal war, each shoe, you know, almost.

For it to merge and become number one.

Self-esteem wrapped up in every shoe is something.

New shoes are on the dashboard of the car,

on the kitchen table, on the bed.

When I see him so obsessed with a shoe,

I have taken the shoe and put it on a pillow at night

to be like, "Here's your shoe."

He thinks about it 100% of his life.

Here's what we're doing. Couple of things.

This I didn't love on.

This might be worth a test.

I think they're too cheap.

But on something like this, a casual item,

you got to be very price sensitive.

That's my experience in the market.

Yeah, they're amazing.

The entrepreneurs is a hard driver

He's like, "Look, we're on this mission!

There may be some casualties here."

Where the fuck are you?

No, no, no, no. You can't do this,

I'm on a fucking tight schedule.

I believe it's some sort of neurotic drive.

You know, there were a lot of people taking vacations when I wasn't.

I thought maybe when he got married and had kids,

I wouldn't be hearing from him on a Saturday and Sunday so often.

Now I hear from him more.

[Steve] Hey, Jackie.

How's my boy?

Okay.

I'm always trying to evolve and get better

and you know, I want to be a good-- a better father.

That's important to me now,

like, be a better husband.

Those are two goals I have. I'm very selfish, self-centered guy.

And it's a struggle for me.

I don't know how he does everything that he does.

Between building this business, family and himself.

[Steve] That's a whole other thing.

Parenting, wow.

I don't even know what to say about it.

It was different from my family at work.

I need Krissy.

And I need Amelia.

Let's start.

I have to say, one of the great things is picking people

to help you with the journey.

So I was banned being a director or officer of a corporation.

We hired this kid in banking, young neophyte named Ed Rosenfeld.

The board had decided to make a change with the old CEO

and that I was going to be the new interim-CEO.

My first reaction was, "What? Who?" [laughs]

Wall Street loved him. Because he spoke their language,

and Steve, was neither an officer nor a director

and he was able to devote all of his time to product.

Your name sake Steve Madden,

he's still a contributing designer, consultant, what does he do?

Oh, yeah. He's the Chief Designer,

he leads everything we do from a creative standpoint

and he's-- he and his team are the ones who deserve the credit.

So as the CEO,

he started to put our money that we were making to good use.

We have 57 locations now around the Far-East,

whereas one year and two months ago we had zero.

My brother was from the new school,

even though he was my only brother.

He understood like entertaining clients.

He didn't really give a shit about expenses.

The most expensive bottles of champagne--

we would just get the bills and freak out.

But he was like, "No, this is what I'm doing.

I'm bringing you a country, you idiots."

[John] UK was starting it,

Europe was starting it, South Africa,

South America, China,

Japan. Israel, Australia, they love it.

[Steve] So now the financial acumen caught up with the creative acumen

doing deals to supplement the creative energy.

We started acquiring companies.

You know, usually just big companies bought--

you know, buy companies. And they're like--

we're making shoes for teenagers, now we're busying companies.

His understanding of the music industry

and his understanding of what--

what's happening in trends outside of,

what's happening with footwear,

that resonates with some many people

and allows him, I think, a tremendous runway.

We were able to take the old school hot shoe

and marry it with the new sort of marketing procedures today.

Hi--

Weren't we talking to Iggy about doing some shoes

What happened?

I'd been wanting to get you in a room, so I hold you hostage.

So how's it going?

Pretty well, I loved the stuff that you did with Iggy.

-Yeah. -That was cool,

she's one of my good friends.

Well, we know.

For Steve, his designs,

his influences, his energy is based on music.

So when he wants to connect with an artist.

It's different, it's very personal.

Hello, Steve?

It's for you.

Yes, I kiss this shoe and I like it.

That's that 13 year old that was 20 years ago when he started

is now 33, he still has her.

I love them.

He has kind of defined how to bring fashion to the market.

Got the king right here. Got the king right here.

[laughs] He is the king. You know that.

Both of you damn guys, you blindsided us.

If he's not on the street, he's with a buyer,

he's talking with somebody who knows somebody that can help him

get that shoe into another door.

It's like he's got this underground network

where he just figures out how to get the things rolling.

Did you guys grow up wearing my shoes?

[Kendall Jenner] Everyone grew up wearing your shoes.

It's a gateway shoe drug, you know.

Before you get your Louis Vuittons,

you got to wear Steve Madden.

[Kendall and Kylie Jenner] Yeah. Uh-huh. Exactly.

I would like to be known as a guy who did all of that stuff,

not just, "Oh, he was this business guy. He was the shoe guy."

I was both.

I was a shoe and a business guy

And I'm still not done yet.

You guys need to do a wide shot to show how massive

this Steve Madden booth is.

It's like from there and goes all the way--

it's all Steve, you understand?

So to come from where he came from,

to weather the storm,

and now look at him.

That's why I love Steve. Because he got federally indicted,

so we have like a weird kinship.

Because they indicted me on money laundering.

I was facing 20 years.

But when he talks about that part of his life.

I understand 100%.

[reporter] For people who don't know Steve Madden, the founder,

served a prison sentence,

and now he contributes in a very-- you know, important way.

[Steve] You know, we'd like to be a power of example

if we could to guys that made mistakes.

There's things that we support.

The Doe Fund is one of them.

Defy is another.

[reporter] That's for guys recently incarcerated.

They get out, you put them to work,

a lot of jobs-- we actually see them in this neighborhood cleaning up--

I think that's amazing that you do that.

Yeah, there's a chance. There's second chances.

The great thing about America.

[all cheering]

[Verne Kneeley] I didn't look for Steve, that man was looking for me

by ear or something.

And I went to see him at a PA,

and everybody was around him.

And he stopped the PA. He jumped up, gave me a big hug.

He said, "I told you I was famous."

[laughs]

-How you doing? -All right.

-So we're getting it all set up -Yeah, yeah.

[Verne] He was like, "Hey man, what do you want to do?

You want to work? You want to do something?"

You know what I mean? He was still that same guy.

So I'm standing on the side,

so people don't realize that I'm with him.

Guy walks up to me, said,

"Look at him, man. He thinks he's all that.

You know all the money. Signing and throwing things around.

He think, 'Oh, he's a big shot.'

I said, 'You don't even know this guy.

And I tell you, I know him personally.

He's not close to any of those that you just said."

You don't try to please people, you know,

because you never will.

There's a part of me that doesn't believe that I'm really that good, you know.

You know, there's an element of being a fraud, you know?

And so, I'm always waiting for that moment where, "Ah!

See, I knew I was shit

And now I've failed."

It's that thing. So I'm so afraid of that.

You're never enough, you know, that kind of bit.

That's why I'm moved by my need to grind

and the need to earn all the time.

My work and my life are one.

It's-- you can't separate them.

I don't think any entrepreneur can separate them.

Who can we hire to do that?

We got to figure it out.

Everything is about the project.

Everything is about the struggle.

You know, just what you're trying to do.

There's nothing more important than that, that's it.

And I've felt that way so many times.

My son would say, "Daddy, why do you have to work so much?"

Well, "I have to pay for clothes and the food that we eat,

this is what Daddy does for a living."

I wanted them to understand work,

what work is all about.

But the truth is, is I love the work.

So Dad loves the work.

And now that I'm getting older, 58 now,

you know, I'm thinking, why do I keep pushing myself?

And it's because I want to win.

[Rachelle] You take on the responsibility right along with him.

You want it to succeed, same way he does.

And it's hard, because you lose friends,

relationships go to shit because it's like--

this becomes your priority.

Sometimes I'm like, "I have kids, that's right."

[Wendy] Can I say this? That it was great to have Steve in prison.

It was the only time, maybe even to this day

that, you know, I got his full attention.

It was a different Steve

When he was in this environment,

you know, he didn't see what was right there.

He was never planning on getting married

His whole life.

[Steve] When it at all costs, there are costs. You know

I'm not proud of it

It's really taken it's toll on me.

I have to say, it's changed me.

You know, it's like, "What the hell am I doing this for?

What's happening here?"

So I'm thinking about my life other than shoes, you know?

[Steve] Lot of loss, lot of loss along the way.

But you know, that's-- that's the human condition, I guess.

And now, you know, I want to be with my kids.

Jack is here.

[Steve] Okay, Jack is here?

I'm leaning on them now, you know?

It feels like.

[indistinct]

It's okay if things are slower

It's okay, you know, things can be slower.

Something changes, you know?

You're just less of a prick.

You know, you get older you just--

I don't know.

I'm different

I'm different now.

But then I have moments where I'm completely insane.

[laughs]

[gasps]

This is my office now.

It's not your office until I say it's your office.

You just said it was my office.

They push me a lot.

Because they're so smart I want to keep up with them.

It's a great team and they're very talented.

So I have to work my ass off to keep up with this crew.

Hello! [laughs]

So what are we talking about?

Turned 60 last Monday.

All right, I'll see you over there.

All right. I'll see you there.

[interviewer] Have you found that love for the business at all like Steve?

Yeah, man. I find myself sometimes always watching women's feet

You know? Always.

I'll talk to you later, goodbye.

"How's the documentary about yourself going?"

My ex-wife.

Everybody's full of shit right?

I mean, really. At the end of the day,

we're all the same.

We're all doing the best we can.

[mobile ringing]

Hey, Steve.