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Fashionista conducted an interview with Steve Madden, purveyor of hyper-trendy, almost-but-not-quite knockoff footwear. When asked about said knockoffs, and staying original despite being "aware of the trends," he tries to pump fake evade by implicating what he terms the "Chinese mafia."
We always try to do our own thing all the time. You know, you get shoes… Balenciaga had a lego shoe, one of our vendors brought it to us, it was stupid, that was one thing. But listen, I'm copied more than anybody in the shoe business. No one is copied more than Steve Madden. No one. If you go to the Chinese guys, SoCal with all the Chinese mafia, they live in my stores, they bring all the samples back.
But then he admits it's a real miracle he's only had to field the occasional lawsuit:
To be honest with you, I haven't had a lot of lawsuits. It's surprising if you think about it. The amount of business that I've done. There was Balenciaga, a thing with Adidas with the stripe. I haven't had a ton.
For more by the man, the myth, the convicted felon, head to Fashionista.
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