The Cobbler

 

 

The Cobbler

by Steve Madden

GENRE:   Memoir

Everyone knows Steve Madden's name and his shoes, but few are familiar with his story. Over the past thirty years Steve Madden has taken his eponymous shoe company from the fledgling startup he founded with a mere $1,100.00 to a global, multi-billion-dollar brand. But Madden's mistakes, from his battle with addiction to the financial shortcuts that landed him in prison, are as important to his story as his most iconic shoes. In this raw, intimate, and inspiring book, Madden holds nothing back as he shares what it took to get here and the lessons he's learned along the way. Readers are treated to the wild ride though his rise, fall, and comeback. But they will also walk away uplifted by a man who has owned up to his mistakes, determined to give back.

Excerpt:

I fidgeted in my tux, restless as ever, as the supermodel Winnie Harlow stood onstage talking about my career, my brand, and me. These events always felt surreal. I never got used to them, and it was hard to focus on what she was saying as thoughts flooded through my brain. Is my jacket straight? Do I have all the notes for my speech? It’s nice that Winnie is wearing a pair of my shoes.

“Steve Madden has been called many things,” Winnie said from the podium. That’s for sure, I thought.

“Mogul,” she said, pausing for effect. “Icon.”

I could have added to that list. As a kid, I was called things like stupid and lazy, a pain in the ass who couldn’t shut up and sit still. Nobody knew then that I had an attention disorder that kept me from focusing, or that such a thing even existed. In my teens and twenties, I was called other things: a partier, a wild man. But at the height of my addiction, when I was either out crashing cars or hiding in my apart- ment, isolating myself from the world, my life was anything but a party.

It wasn’t until I turned thirty and got clean that people started calling me things that were positive: creative, charismatic, someone who was on the pulse of trends and knew how to create a cool product for a good price. When I look back, those years were the best—hustling and fighting, clawing my way to the top of an industry that was loathe to accept an outsider like me. But they were also the years when I made my biggest mistakes fueled by impatience and a replacement addiction: money. After my downfall, the names I was called were the most hurtful, even though they were true: a criminal, a convict, a mere number as far as anyone running the facility I was locked up in cared to know.

About the Author:

A man who wears many hats-and shoes-Steve Madden cannot be described in one word. He is an entrepreneur, an award-winning designer, and a business titan whose eponymous company is currently worth 3 billion dollars. On the flip side, he is an ex-con, a recovering addict, and a devoted family man. Over the past thirty years, the provocative shoe designer built a booming brand and nearly lost it all to The Wolf of Wall Street, only to rebound by giving back and creating a global empire. Through it all, he hasn't forgotten his humble beginnings or his core consumer, resulting in millions of adoring fans worldwide. Considered the fashion footwear mogul of the twenty-first century, Madden has an innate sense of what's hot, what's next, what's exciting, and more importantly, how this will translate to the customer. He is also an active philanthropist and mentor who supports a number of organizations that help those in need of a second chance.

https://www.getthecobbler.com

https://www.amazon.com/Cobbler-Disrupted-Industry-Grace-Stronger/dp/B0BLC2BT86/

GIVEAWAY

Steve Madden will be awarding $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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