Steven Madden, Ltd.

Is Steven Madden, Ltd. publicly traded?

Yes. The company trades on the NASDAQ under ticker SHOO. It has been public since December 1993.

Who owns Steven Madden, Ltd.?

The company is widely held by institutional and public shareholders, with no controlling owner. Founder Steve Madden remains creatively involved but does not control the company.

Does Steve Madden still run the company?

Steve Madden serves as creative and design chief but is barred from officer and director roles under his SEC settlement. Ed Rosenfeld has been CEO since 2019.

What brands does Steven Madden own?

The portfolio includes Steve Madden, Kurt Geiger (acquired 2025), Dolce Vita, Betsey Johnson, Blondo, GREATS, and BB Dakota, plus licensed extensions across categories.

What was the Kurt Geiger acquisition?

In May 2025, Steven Madden completed its acquisition of British footwear group Kurt Geiger for approximately $360 million, its largest deal ever and the driver of fiscal 2025's 11 percent revenue growth.

What is Steven Madden's annual revenue?

For fiscal 2025, the company reported revenue of $2.53 billion, up 11 percent year over year, with net income of $44.7 million.

Where is Steven Madden headquartered?

The company is headquartered in Long Island City, Queens, New York, where it has operated since its early years across the East River from Manhattan.

Steve Madden founded the company in 1990 with about $1,100, selling platform shoes from the trunk of his car to Manhattan boutiques. The timing rode the early-1990s chunky-heel revival, and styles like the Mary Lou and Slinky made the brand a defining look of the decade.

The company went public on the NASDAQ in December 1993 and built its wholesale business supplying department stores and mall chains. Its reputation was speed: the design operation moved from trend observation to store shelves faster than competitors, a capability that became the company's structural advantage.

The founder's legal crisis interrupted the story in 2002, when Steve Madden was convicted of securities fraud and money laundering connected to the Stratton Oakmont stock scheme. He served 41 months in federal prison and settled with the SEC, accepting a ban on serving as an officer or director while retaining his creative role. Ed Rosenfeld, who joined in 2008, became CEO in 2019.

Portfolio building followed: Betsey Johnson in 2010, Blondo and Dolce Vita in 2014, GREATS in 2019, and BB Dakota. The largest deal came in May 2025 with the acquisition of Kurt Geiger, the British footwear group, for approximately $360 million. Fiscal 2025 revenue rose 11 percent to $2.53 billion on the Kurt Geiger contribution, though net income fell to $44.7 million on integration costs, tariffs, and restructuring charges.

The company publishes corporate responsibility information covering supplier standards and materials commitments, though it does not hold B Corp certification. Its supply chain follows standard footwear-industry codes for its Asian and Latin American factory base.

As a design-and-wholesale business without owned factories, its direct environmental footprint is modest; the bulk of impact sits in contracted manufacturing, where it applies vendor audit programs.

The founder's legal history, while personal rather than corporate, remains a reputational factor the company manages through governance separation between his creative role and executive leadership.

The defining controversy is the founder's 2002 conviction on securities fraud and money laundering charges tied to Stratton Oakmont. He served 41 months and accepted an SEC ban on officer and director roles, an arrangement that still governs his creative-only position today.

The company has faced periodic intellectual property litigation in both directions, defending against design-infringement claims from luxury houses while protecting its own trade dress, with mixed court outcomes typical of fashion law.

Labor matters include a 2024 National Labor Relations Board issue involving warehouse workers, resolved through standard processes. Tariff exposure on imported footwear has been the dominant public-policy issue, with management citing trade costs as a material margin factor in recent years.