Steve Madden Loves Quaaludes, Hates Adderall, & Is Addicted To Nose Spray

The Checkup with Doctor Mike

DM Operations Inc.

Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Buy Steve's new book here - The Cobbler: How I Disrupted an Industry, Fell from Grace, and Came Back Stronger Than Ever: https://www.amazon.com/Cobbler-Disrupted-Industry-Grace-Stronger/dp/B0BLC2BT86 Steve Madden is a world-renowned shoe designer, entrepreneur, and convicted felon. Quite the combination of accolades. Steve started his shoe empire hustling his designs in New York City until one day he came in contact with Jordan Belfort, The Wolf Of Wallstreet. Jordan helped Steve take his shoe company public, raise millions of dollars, but broke the law along the way, landing Steve in federal prison for 41 months. Today I talked to Steve about his time in prison, his philosophy in designing shoes, his addiction to nose spray, his struggles with sobriety, and the amazing work he's doing getting former inmates back on their feet when they finish their prison sentences. Executive Producer and Host: Dr. Mike Varshavski Produced by Dan Owens and Sam Bowers Art by Caroline Weigum CONTACT: [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	What are some of the biggest misconceptions you hear about prison that you say not true?
0:04.4	Well the biggest one is the country club. People say oh we went to a country club.
0:12.2	You know they'll like a felon a felon, a white collar.
0:14.3	Ah, okay. That's no such fucking thing.
0:17.2	Okay. It is awful.
0:18.6	That is Steve Madden. You may know him as the man who designed the shoes of a multi-billion dollar company
0:24.4	or perhaps from his character being portrayed in Martin Scorsese The Wolf of Wall Street.
0:28.7	Or maybe you know him from being sent away to federal prison for a pump and dump scheme.
0:32.8	Regardless of where you know him from,
0:34.4	Steve's intriguing story is truly one of a kind.
0:37.4	So how does a world-renowned household name shoe designer
0:40.8	wind up paling around with the most notorious Wall Street criminal of all time
0:44.9	and land himself in federal prison? Well, it all started in the 70s.
0:48.8	I worked in high school in a shoe store.
0:50.8	And what was your experience in the shoe store that made you enjoy the
0:53.7	process? Very creative time, you know it was the 70s and men and women were being
0:58.8	creative and I think the people that own the businesses had been hippies and gone to Woodstock.
1:05.0	This is before my time.
1:07.2	I think that they were part of the counterculture and then these people went into business
1:11.6	so they did things differently and that's who sort of taught me.
1:14.8	Despite his humble beginnings, Steve went on to become one of the most successful fashion designers in history,
1:20.0	which naturally must have come from all the hard work you put into school, right?
	...

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