tv Charlie Rose PBS July 8, 2013 12:00pm-1:00pm EDT
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>> rose: welcome to the program. to want, baseball and bob bowman, the man who has made it possible for so many people to watch their favorite teams in action. >> if you think of it from a fans' point of view, what it's done is all the technology that we've done and created and deployed and all that for the person growing up in n milwaukee i'm getting the same high technology, high definition that the person in new york and l.a. is getting so there's been a leveling of the field for all fans. and all the fans are enjoying very good technology, if not the best, hopefully near the best. >> rose: we conclude with christian louboutin, the man who has made the souls of shoes very famous. >> shoe is a very important element for women. first of all it really
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accentuates and it's very -- it changes the body language, the way the shoe is going to be viewed, the way you're going to walk. so the way you're going to present yourself in a way. and also in general it elevates you so it definitely transforms the body. and it gives you the perception of the body, you know? you have -- you have a certain conscience of your body and i think there is nothing wrong with that. you know, sometimes people tell me "i can't run in these shoes." >> rose: you don't want them run. >> you don't also -- why would you want to run all the time? >> rose: bowman and louboutin, next.
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captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: >> bob bowman is here with m.l.b. advanced media, the interactive arm of major league baseball. over the last 13 years the country has grown into one of the most successful names in technology.
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"sports illustrated" wrote that "baseball has been way ahead on the tech curve because of the brilliance of bowman whose outfit is setting the gold standard for live sports streaming, ticketinging, merchandising and stats on the web." last year "business insider" named the company as the eighth most valuable privately owned technology firm in the world. it's estimated to be worth as much as $6 billion. for all those reasons, i'm pleased to have bob bowman at this table for the first time. and and the fact that i've known him forever. >> forever. you have more titles now, i watch you in the morning and at night. i see you more than i see my wife. >> rose: (laughs) tell me how this all started. you are a milwaukee brewer fan. >> born and raised. >> when he brought the new team, the brewers he was a hero and you were there to cheer him on. >> for those of us who were
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teenagers and loved baseball it was a gloomy day when the braves moved away, as it can be in milwaukee when the braves move bud he worked hard behind the scenes, five years later the seattle pilots became the brewers and he was a god. mayor or governor were too small a title for him. so god fits. if you're a teenager who loves baseball and you can go to baseball games again it really mattered. he's had that attitude towards baseball all his life. he is a huge baseball fan and he gets it from the fans' point of view which is probably why he's been a good commissioner is that he's done wefrg the team. he owned it, he ran it. back in those days the owners parked cars, they did a lot of things. that was small business and now it's a big, big business. but he had the vision, not me. we're just operators. in '99 he thought the internet thing was catching on and maybe we ought to centralize all the digital media from the teams and i think a lot of people thought, charlie, that it's been about sort of making an asset and growing an asset and certainly it has done that.
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but if you think of it from a fans' point of view, what it's done is all the technology that we've bought and created and deployed and all those things, for the milwaukee fan, the person growing up in milwaukee, i'm getting the same high technology high definition great stuff that the person in new york is getting, the person in l.a.. so there's been a levelingng the field for all fans. all the fans are enjoying what we'd like to think is very good technology, if not the best hopefully near the best. >> rose: how did you get involved? >> they called and asked me if i wanted to be the first c.e.o. i tried act like i didn't and tried to negotiate this. >> rose: (laughs) right. >> and i was just not very good at it. and there's a long list of things that i haven't negotiated well. that's on it. but it was a dream job. i love baseball and i love sports and i love technology so it was really something i love to do and i was a fun of bud seligigor a long time. >> rose: but you knew a lot about technology? >> i wouldn't they's true. i wouldn't say even today that's true. >> rose: you know people who do.
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>> i know people who know people right. but i was at i.t.t. and we dabbled and had done a lot with technology. >> rose: this is when i first met you. >> and the internet has been a great spot and if you think about what baseball is, it's an egalitarian sport, it's for everybody. we have 75 million people going to our game. so the ability to use the internet to deploy our games and get our games out there, exciting prospect. >> rose: but it's a game you don't think necessarily perfect for the tech ages. or do you? >> well, we do. because we play everyday-- let's say you're a yankee or mets fan living here, even though you grew up in the south, maybe you're a braves fan. >> rose: no, yankees. >> you're a yankees fan, they play 162 times, you can't get the yankee stadium stadium, you can't watch them on t.v. with the great job they. do you're too busy. everyone, not just charlie rose but everyone is too busy. >> rose: realtime is not a -- >> and you have to do it realtime. the game is over, you're going to move on.
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so if you have five minutes and you're between meetings or waiting in an elevator or church and synagogue, picking up your kids at school, open up your mobile phone, get a score, an update, see a highlight. so it's pretty well suited for this digital age and this mobile age where people have three minutes here and four minutes there. >> rose: the average person who is -- w wches major league baseball in terms of watching through you watches for how long? >> it varies by device. on the phone it's about 13 minutes. on the tablet about 31. and on a laptop or desktop about 33 minutes. so probably longer than you might think and probably relates or in what they're doing rather than the device. the device dictates the time but when you're using your mobile phone, you're on the, go moving between things; even maybe moving between rooms in your house. but when you're a tablet or laptop you might be more stationary, you're at a desk and therefore you might have a little more time. so those times seem short but
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they're not. that's a long time to commit everyday for a baseball game. 30 minutes. >> rose: and growing trend is to mobile. >> our traffic now is almost 50-50. >> rose: 50-50? >> right, on to the mobile phone. the mobile phone -- we're still behind the times. as much as all of your friends and relatives and all your guests use mobile phones and rely on them, certainly everybody under the age of 20, we're still behind the times. you go to latin america -- >> rose: we who? >> the u.s., because latin america, entirely mobile, asia almost entirely mobile. and that's where the world is going. it's going to be a mobile universe and these phones, whether it's steve jobs or the android phones, whatever it may be, they've changed our lives. we might discuss it's made it worse when you walk down the streets of new york and people are bumping into you or when you're in the middle of a conversation and someone says "that's very interesting" and go right to their phone. it's the way we live. you can't turn the clock back. >> rose: but back to the beginning, what's the relationship between the company and major league baseball? >> the owners each own one with
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thirts. 3.3%. and we report to a board of directors. it was t commissioner was genius for coming up with idea but he set it up outside of baseball. today's media companies created digital vision but it reports up through another analog group or an older version of media. this one reported outside. the commissioner said enhanced franchise value, make money and promote the game. do those three things. >> rose: what percentage is owned by major league teams? >> each one 1/30th. so when the dodgers were purchased bying intoen chaim, et cetera, they valued at some value and their payment back if they ever sell the team and the same thing with the yankees and mets have been in the same ownership forever. but these teams have sold in the last decade or some. they put some value on bam and their value for the franchise has been increased by some factor. whatever it is, you read the number. you said $6 billion. whatever the number is, they take some valuation, divide by 30 and add it to the franchise value when they buy the team. if you're a commissioner, that's
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something that's not trivial. you're trying to add franchise value, get everyone to be competitive so you can make the all-star game more interesting and improve t.v. ratings. but in the end of the day you want to get measured by what the owners have increased the value of their franchise by. >> rose: so your contribution is what? >> (laughs) i thought you wanted to make this a long c crsation? the -- >> rose: (laughs) what do you do? >> it's funny, when i talk to kids and say "what do you do there?" it's either a very short "nothing" or a very long conversation. but, you know, we're now 650 people and we basically half of them are technology, almost 33% are reporters. we have the largest sports reporting staff almost anywhere in the world with the exception of espn. certainly largest reporting baseball staff in the world. >> rose: what's the volume of streaming versus anybody else? >> we'll do we think larger. we'll do 20,000 live stream this is year. 5,000 in baseball. >> rose: 5,000?
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>> we'llo 15,000 outside of baseball, we do live streaming for other entities including cbs sports at time, including espn. it's a turnkey operation, we capture, encode and redistribute. and redistribution, charlie, has changed. when we started this company it was one operating system, windows, and one device, a desktop. and now when you do all the permutations and you do the devices times the operating system it is number you get was 3,500. so when we capture a stream we have to encode it and redistribute it so itit looks right on 3,500 hundred devices versus one. so the game has gotten more complicated for us and our technology team, the aaforementioned group, they have to figure out ways to get it to 3,500 devices instantaneously like it used to be one device. >> rose: is this because you got in early and you took the risk and therefore you became the dominant factor? >> there's a lot to be said to be a first mover. not everyone has to be a first mover.
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we made more than our fair share of mistake for sure but we made them as you said at a time when everyone was following it n it but not closely and it was a cute thing, the internet. now it's become sort of dominant. your shows are, as you know, restreamed everywhere in a lot of different web sites. >> rose: not enough. >> not enough. it could always be more. we talked about that. we have more to do here. we're not leaving until we get something fun. >> rose: (laughs) >> but i think that we believe able to help develop things and shape things. even the initial i.o.s. system we had a play in how videos should play on that because we were there first. but we make our share of mistakes and i think being first does help. and we were among the first, again, not thanks to anything we did but thanks to the vision of our commissioner. >> rose: this is what fast company said, a magazine. "bam has technologically sophisticated as any company anywhere. baseball's digital arm has quietly proven itself to be new york's top tech startup of the last decade."
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so what other live video beyond sports? >> well, we do live shows for folks who -- we do for individuals who are trying to create their own show and they have their own channel because that's the way -- you know, you think of what cable is. cable was narrow casting, doing things online is even more narrow casting and we have some people doing that. we stream for a lot of businesses who do their live events and want to reach their shareholders, their employees worldwide and they want to do it live, they stream live there. it's principally, though, live sports and it is worldwide just because somebody who wants to do it right and like you take -- you take a golf event, it's four days and it has to be done right. it's not a baseball season where if you don't get it right on thursday you'll figure it out by monday. no, this has to be right on thursday. you have four days to make it right. so i think the higher quality, the more important the content is, the more likely we are to get a call. >> rose: that's why i do a television show that's daily so i can come back tomorrow and fix
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what i did badly. >> the great thing about the internet is we make a mistake and someone pointed out we correct it. >> so if you want to have access to this it will cost you a hundred bucks a year? >> yeah, we think for 2 4shgsz 30, which is how many regular season games there are, and you get all these realtime stats, it's barely a hundred bucks a year, one of the best values you could ever find. >> rose: i'm sure it is. >> we need more subscribers. all kidding aside, we have an app a alication on the mobile phones, the app world. in fact, our fifth year anniversary is coming up on july 10, the iphone. july 10 the iphone will be-- drum roll, please-- only five years old. >> rose: that's unbelievable, isn't it? >> five years old. and our app will be five years. >> rose: whose idea was the app, you or steve jobs? >> no, i wasn't -- steve -- they came up with the app store and
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they -- >> rose: well, i know that, but for baseball to have an app, did you see the app store and say "man, this is made for us"? >> i don't think it was me per se but we have a group of people there. we've been doing the mobile since '05 because we saw people wanting to use them. when they launched the ipad they asked our two best engineers to come out and they wouldn't allow us to tell us and then steve jobs lauauhed the ipad and we thought really. 40 million ipads in the u.s. alone later and we see that's a real sport. but the android system has been a real boon for us because that's how people communicate. >> rose: so what about these deals, all these networks, these baseball teams have with sports networks, regional sports networks. are you cannibalizing their
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products? >> well, if you're a yankee fan -- we respect that. i ink those walls inch by inch are coming down a little bit, but like every business, there's an economic pie here that has to be very careful with. the cable system -- a lot of people are taking brickbats at it. it's a good system. one bill a month, you get these channels, it's easy to use. 11:00 i can watch you.u. if i don't like that guest i can watch -- watch "the daily show." it's a good system. >> rose: most people watch both. >> we like both. we find one more entertaining than the other and i won't tell you which. >> rose: (laughs) so do i! one's smarter than the other, too. >> yeah, i think that's two pretty smart people on thoho two shows. we like them both and i -- so i think we've got to protect that system but inch by inch we need to serve the fans. fans have come first and so fans want to watch a live baseball game. eventually we're going to have to ghetto a point where they can
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go to the device and watch it. whether it's their phone or tablet -- >> rose: it's a deal between you and the system? >> we have to respect everyone's value and business model. >> is that one of your strengths? you're a great negotiator? >> i told you before, i -- you know, i think -- i think what we've learned in the internet space is if you're two years early it doesn't do you any good because no one will know you were there and if you're six months late you're really in trouble. so one of the advantages -- >> rose: you meantiming is good? >> timing is everything in the internet space. it's frustrating because it's so instantaneous you get information so quickly yet the business model takes a while to develop. it's not year the right business model is, at least not to us. so i think -- we've had the patience to wait for the right deal and we tone content, right? it's owned by baseball and so we're not leasing it and so we're not in the a rush to do do a bad deal. so i think we've tried to avoid some deals that don't make sense and waiting for the right moment and the right kind offeal. it will happen. we've done a -- we think we've done a good job getting content
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to fans and we could do a better job. >> rose: the advantage i had is the sophistication of my set. that's what really did it for me. >> right. >> rose: look at this. >> right, the table's, what, -- >> rose: 21 years old. and the curtains are the same age. we bought them second hand. >> on t.v. this table looks pretty darn good so all the people watching, they'll tell you, the table looks 21 years old. it's a fine table. look, no devices on it. oh, they're over there, hidden. >> rose: so where are you taking this? >> i think -- we don't know. it's a little bit proactive and reactive and we're pretty paranoid. we get everyday and look at other sites to see who's doing but what but if i had to put my finger on what's going to happen next-- and let's use the baseball game as an example-- right now people will use a physical ticket. they might print it at home on a piece of paper that they bought
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on line, but some people, roughly 6% of our fans, got in with something on their phone. they have to show the phone, it scans the bar code, just like you do at starbucks or a grocery store, you scan a bar code and go. the day will come-- and i don't mean five years, i mean maybe in five months and certainly by next year where charlie rose is going to go to the yankee game and if your phone is on your person-- which it almost invariably is-- we're going to know you're there, you'll be checked in, no turnstile, no nothing. you'll walk in, we'll read you, send you a note on your phone to remind you where your seats are, send you whatever information the yankees might want to tell you, you'll be all checked in. and technology will be more pervasive but it will get to a point where you don't think of it as technology anymore. it's sort of a way of life. it's not -- >> rose: is this why you bought www.tickets.com? >> well, ticketing is mother's milk of baseball. our fans love going through-to-the games. once you walk through yankee stadium you know you're a different kind of baseball fan.
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>> rose: and you can sit there and watch it at the game if you want to see a replay. you know stream willing deliver you things you might not get being in the stadium? >> well, we have to -- in our mind, charlie, the stadium technology as advanced as a couch so we are spending along with our partners at t-mobile, at&t and verizon hundreds and hundreds of millions to "wire" the stadiums so we have a good signal there so if you see a bang-bang play and want to see it again on your phone you can because we think you can do on that on your couch. >> rose: is this what you're seeing on the big stadium -- is it content you're creating or simply content happening in the stadium? >> repurposing. repurposing -- you might see it from a different angle. >> rose: ah. >> you go to a baseball game-- and i've gone to hundreds if not thousands in the last few years-- there's nothing to replace it. it's ballet. it's just great. the best athletes in the world, in my opinion, playing this great game. but you miss things. you're 150 feet away. >> rose: the best athletes in the world? >> i think so.
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>> rose: do you really. >> i really do. >> rose: more so than basketball? >> i think. so longest careers, baseball players. i think if you're a great athlete, if you had to pick a sport you'd pick baseball. you have to longest careers, best conditions. i think so. >> rose: no, i think that's a debatable point. >> no question it's a debatable point. i mean, you're going to compare lebron james against journeyman second baseman you might have me there. but in balance over time -- >> rose: who measures up to lebron james in athleticism. >> in baseball? >> rose: yes! >> well, i'll take this guy in l.a. right now getting seven hits every. jimmy davis in baltimore who homers every time -- he had three homers in the locker room. the guy's hitting the ball out of the park everywhere. he's got 31 home runs! that's a lot of -- that doesn't even compare to last year. there's a lot of players. you would expect know think baseball players are the best player. the point is that you have a game, you don't see everything. you don't see the pitch. think of all that. so if youuant to see that pitch
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hung on the corn did it catch a piece of the plate or not you can go to your phone and see it. you can do that at home while the baseball stadium affords you opportunities you can't get anywhere. i think we have to have the technology. >> rose: here is my -- i had this wild idea. >> oh, great. a new business? >> rose: (laughs) this is to help you! >> oh, well, let me grab my wallet and i'll go. >> rose: (laughs) we need to put a little "go" camera on every player's helmet. and so after the pitch we can watch from the pitcher's head the pitch as it goes right to the -- or we can see it from the catcher -- >> we've done a capture cam before but i'll tell you what we'll do with the all-star game. >> rose: so i'm not so stupid after all! >> nobody said that. nobody. maybe some folks backstage. >> rose: the people who work with me everyday. >> but if you -- this year's all-star game, july 16 at city field, great ball yard. they have a lot of fun. there but we're going to offer on the webb site, we're going to
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have radar so we can measure the movement of everybody, all the players in the stadium. so when the ball is hit we can look at the center fielder and watch how quick his jump is, what his direction is -- >> rose: i love that. >> what his direction to the ball is and how fast he gets there. so if he does the two legs of the triangle versus aypotenuse it will take him longer. if he does the 48 versus 46 it will take him longer. if it takes him three-tenths of a second to get a jump versus two-tenths it will take him longer. we'll measure all. that and these -- defense, not really stat bus information, every manager knows it, every g.m. knows in the their gut. we're going to start giving the fan an opportunity to tack about it, too. that will create a lot of -- >> rose: activity here? >> we'll show it to them and say it was a bad jump, he ran the wrong way. some of these catches as my brother used to tell me when i would do something in sports making the easy look impossible. some of these jumps are a little slow. they here -- when they show it
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if they'd just moved sooner. and conversely some of these catchs are truly phenomenal. where they get a jump and a shoestring catch. so i think giving that to the fans, we'll see if it works. but your idea of letting the fan know where the -- pla the player is doing, we agree. there's nine of them out there. >> rose: my ththry is the more you know about something the more interesting it is. and if you understand the brazilians of what that outfielder has done and what k appreciate it then you enjoy the game more. >> i think that's right. we did this with pitching where we did -- three things matter in pitch: speed, location and the break. and if everyone looks like that's what matters b b as you know break and location matter just as much. it's really hard to hit a ball that moves six inches in the last four feet. >> rose: (laughs) yes. >> it's really hard to do that. we go back to your best athletes again. >> rose: exact lift hand-eye coordination tse essential as ted williams would say. >> and it's impossible to tell which way the ball where l break. so i thinkthose three thing
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things and fans get to talk about it, we think hopefully these defensive stats will be just as useful to fans. >> rose: what's surprising about this conversation is that there was a time when you were treasurer of the state of michigan. many people thought you were like -- what were you, 27? >> something like that. something like that. >> rose: so then everybody thought you were going to be governor of m mgan and then go on to be president of the united states. that was what they thought. >> all right. okay. thank god i got derailed. >> rose: (laughs) >> you got out of politics and so then have you given up the idea of politics? >> we're all in politics at some level and i must say i work through five great people. if i two write a booshgs i would write a book about five people. i've had five great bosses in my life. and there are few -- sadly, all kidding aside, there are very few americans who can say they worked for five people who were smarter than they were, helped them a lot and been friends since they've moved on to other jobs and the governor that i worked for, jim blanchard, is such a person, as is bud selig
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today. >> rose: who are the other three three? >> roger altman. bob downey, goldman sachs. and then randy cox, c.e.o. >> rose: so this whole accumulation of experience prepares you do what? >> in my mother's eyes damn little. >> rose: (laughs) >> shi keeps saying "this is all nice, bob, what about a career?" >> rose: your wife says why can't you be on t.v. like charlie sfloz >> all sorts of cheap shotsfrom all over the place. you know, as you can fully appreciate given the interest that you have and why you're such a good interviewer, you are interested in what people say and what they've done. like you've been very lucky, done a lot of different things, probably not good at anything but enjoyed everything along the way. >> rose: thank you. >> thank you, enjoyed it. >> rose: christian louboutin is here. he is one of the biggest names
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fashion and footwear. his red lacquer soles have become iconic. his designs can be elegant, flirty, often outlandish. in recent years he's also expanded into men's shoes. i am pleased to have him here at this table for the first time. welcome. when did you fall in love with the idea of creating shoes? >> it comes back to a long, long time now. i was in my early teens. i was probably between 12 to 13 and -- but i didn't really fall in love with shoes properly. i fell in love with show girls. with musical girls and i was born in paris and raised there and i had discovered with my best friend from school that you could go to theaters and if you don't have a ticket at the intermission people go out and then come back and you never have your ticket which is requested. so i would sneak in with my friend and so out of place, a
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lot of shows but my favorite things were always to see musicals. to see the show girls. so i sort of first fell in love with the universe of stage and show show girls in general and to me they were like birds, exotic birds. those women are exotic birds so i just thought what can i do for the exotic birds which they don't have yet. a bird has feathers, i didn't think to add feathers. i wanted to do shoes for these girls. >> rose: so you began how? >> i started when i was 17 working in the cabaret and so i learned a lot there. i did not design shoes because it's a long process and an expensive process. i worked as anntern for a few months then worked for different companies.
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>> rose: doing what? >> learning my -- learning what i have to learn how to construct the shoe. from the design it's becoming a third dimension so all the process of how it goes to become a three dimension drawing. >> rose: idea of the red souls came in a flash. >> yeah. it came in -- i started my own company with my name at the end of 1991 and someone was sketching, i was always sketching before and, you know, when you're designed that's very important, when you sketch and have the real thing it often has a lot of differences and differences is that, you know, in the drawing you can completely leave your imagination being completely with no limits. the it becomes a shoe or dress or whatever. it shrinks to some possible
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lines and you ask any designer you're very happy when your primary drawing looks as good as possible to the reality. and they were full of color. i was thinking of andy warhol, pop art in general an day warhol and so i sketch and when when i did the first shoe, i looked at it and the drawing -- it looked like my drawing but my drawing looked better. so i sort of -- the shoe like this, i suddenly had this big black mark which was not on my drawing and i thought it doesn't exist in my drawing, maybe it's a matter of that. and i had the girl that i was trying on my shoes a size seven just trying those shoes, she was painting her nails so i grabbed her nail polish so we had a bit of a fight because she did not
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finish. i said "don't worry, i'll get you her one. "i painted it and poof, just like a revelation it was exactly like my drawing. so i thought okay, it's really nice and it gives great definition to the line of the heel so i said okay, i'm going to have now i'm going color the soles. at the beginning i thought different colors and then i sort of stick to red. >> rose: did it catch on instantly. so >> sort of quite quickly, yes. >> because it was defining for you. it became a trademark? >> first of all, before becoming a trademark it was a sign of recognition but also it's very -- it's a very flirtatious thing and i remember the first year this woman coming and she said my god your shoes are like hoovers. they're trapped. and she was very, very happy about that. and this woman also came to me and said you have to do my wedding shoes and she insisted.
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and i had three weeks and i said i can't, it's too short notice. she said i'metting married because of you. and she explained that she crossed the eyes of a man in the street and he came back in front of her and he said "do you know you have red soles" and she pretended she didn't know and they started to see each other and eventually they were getting married and she says that her husband to be was so shy that they were always laughing by the fact that if she didn't have those red sole he is would have never approached her because he would not not known what to say. but it's a green light. >> rose: do you think shoes say something about women? the shoes that they choose? >> well, i do think that shoes speak for the woman who wear them. heel -- the limit i would say is that the woman has to like shoes. i can't give a part of the character of a woman, imagine a
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part of the character of a woman through her shoes but he still has to like shoes. if she's really not into shoes at all then it's complicated for me. >> rose: don't most women like shoes? >> yeah, a lot. a lot. >> rose: and you also -- tell me psychology. i mean, this is a shoe. this is a shoe, this is a shoe. they all have one common thing, very high heels and very -- what do you call that? >> thin heels? a stiletto. >> rose: stiletto. they're high. sometimes not so comfortable. yes? >> yes. >> rose: you don't care if it's not comfortable? >> well, it's not my priority, i would say. i do care, but just like as a doctor i don't get my -- my doctor has to have their secrets so i just don't want to design to look comfortable. that's very different. if you take a shoe -- >> rose: even if it's comfortable you don't want it to look comfortable? >> exactly.
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it needs to look comfortable because suffer to look beautiful doesn't work. one doesn't have to suffer to look beautiful. but it shouldn't look comfort. if you think of something comfort -- if you think of a shoe looking comfortable what are you going to think of. >> rose: this says, what? sexy, elegant, sassy, confident. playful. if dangerous, maybe? sometimes? >> (laughs) >> rose: there is a psychology behind all of this. the choice of shoes, the way you design shoes, your sense of what shoes can do. i mean, you think that the body begins from theshusz up. >> yes. >> rose: and they said it up. >> yes. and well definitely shoe is a very important element for women. first of all it really accentuates and it's very -- it changes a body language.
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the way a shoe is going to be viewed, the way you're going to walk. so the way you're going to present yourself. also in general it elevates you so it definitely transforms the body and it gives you the perception of the body. you have a certain conscience of your body and i think there is nothing wrong with that. sometimes people tell me i can't run in these shoes and you don't want them to run. >> also, why would you want to run all the time? if you run through life you end up seeing nothing anding somewhere no contact. this one woman time came to me and thanked me because she looked at her street, the building in her street in paris in a a different and she said nw
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my pace has been slower and i actually have underty think there is nothing wrong with slowing sometimes the pace of your walk. >> rose: indeed. >> you will see things around you. do all shoes have a red sole? >> all shoes have a red sole. yes. that's my trademark. >> you stick with what got you there. >> exxtly. >> rose: dance with who you came with. what material is this? >> this is leather. >> painted leather or -- >> lacquered sole, painted leather. >> rose: shoes are made in milano? >> made in italy. all my shoes are made in italy. there's one thing about shoes and one thing about people working, workers, artisans have -- according to the country, artisans have a hand and italians have a very feminine hand. it doesn't mean that italians
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are feminine, it means that their hands are feminine so that the attention to the details, yeah, the attention to the detail of the italian artisans is very feminine. >> rose: you see in the tailoring, too. >> absolutely. >> rose: very much so. >> which is not the case for the french artisan. they are much more heavy -- french are very good for, like, making men cease shoes, heavier shoes, different construction but for my type of shoes definitely it had to be italy. >> rose: were you lead to men's shoes because men said make shoes for people like me because i admire your shoes and i want the same thing for my shoes? >> no. you know what happened exactly. a few years ago i had a phone call of a young pop star, european pop star called mika, i knew of his music. i didn't know him and he asked me to do shoes for his tour and i said "why me who is designing for women?" he said "every time i see a girl
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with your shoes they get so excited. me on tour, i need the same thing. i need to be surrounded by things which are cheering me up and lifting me up." so i think, well, fair enough. and funny enough, i thought after -- so i did the shoes for his tour but funny enough i started to do men's shoes just as i wanted to do women's shoes meaning for people doing performers. and it's not by accident that i started to do shoes for men starting by one performer. >> rose: and how are they different from other men's shoes. >> well, i've been myself -- i've been thinking for the longest time that men have a different relationship with their shoes and i think these have completely changed and elevated not for everyone necessarily but for a lot of men. men like to -- i saw that every man wanted to have shoes for four years, you know? five pairs or wear the same but you have a huge amount of men who like shoes like women. meaning they want to be able to
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change it, they want to have a new one, they want to get excited. they are fed up. they want to switch to another one. the same way. this type of excitement that brings shoes -- that brings -- which is brought to women. so, yes, a lot of men are like that. and even if you look now on red carpets you may have a classical black suit for a man and white shirt and something here. a bow tie. but less and less it goes to shoes now. >> rose: there it is. in other words, shoes is the kind of distinguishing things from a dark suit with an open white shirt. you look down and there is something different. >> exactly. >> rose: in a sense it replaces what ties used to be. >> exactly. ties or bow ties, yes. >> rose: now, when -- here's what the "new yorker" magazine did, a famous 2011 profile of you. "the red souls offer the pleasure of secret knowledge to the wearer and that of serendipity to their beholder. like louis xiii, they promise
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the world of glamour." you must love this. >> i do! >> rose: "they're also a marketing gimmick that renders an otherwise indistinguishable product instant, recognizable." that's true, too. >> are we making too much about this? >> well, i'm going to tell you one thing, the i don't think so. i'm very happy about that. and also -- also there is one thing i'm doing a lot of personal appearances in america and i -- >> rose: meaning that at stores or media or -- >> i'm signing shoes, i need the customers. >> rose: and what do they tell you? >> that's why, you know, it's -- i don't think it's too much because i see that my customers -- a lot of customers are -- they tell me about what has been the affect with their shoes. their favorite shoes. what it brought to them. and how they met this person and
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you know, how it connected. it's very much of a tool of communication strangely enough. >> rose: it's a definition.n. >> it's a definition of a part of your character. it is a definition and also women buy their shoes to please themselves first and after it's also something that they share. it's -- i do like to do these because i get to meet a lot of people who a a telling -- my work is to design the shoes and to do them as much as i can really beautiful for people and then after -- it's their story. >> rose: okay, i want to see a series of shoes that you have designed. what i know i'm looking at is a napa fuchsia satin platform. i know that because i can read. (laughs) the next one? >> that's called clovis. >> rose: but it doesn't have the
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stiletto heel, does it? >> no, i'm doing flat shoes, medium shoes. >> rose: really. are they as sexy? i think of this long slim pair of jeans and these long stiletto -- you know, something like this. you know? a combination of long leanness as well as sort of being propelled forward. and this is not that, though. that's something very different. >> no. no. i've been doing a lot -- i'm still doing a lot of different type of shoes. these shoes have been done a while ago. i think this is in '94/'95. >> rose: really a while ago. >> it's inclusion of -- i saw a woman walking on a -- i thought a woman walking on a bed of flowers. it should have been roses but this is high hydrangeas. >> rose: look at these patent leather pumps. what do you think about that? >> that's my idea about recycling. i had this long conversation about recycling and ecology in a
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way. i said i'm doing myself recycling and this is the shoe which is coming from recycling meaning it's olds can, those guinness cans, black and gold and so it's covering here so it's a whole recycling thing. i have different type of cans. >> rose: that's what a painter would do. do you think of yourself as a kind of artist? >> my father was a cabinet maker. >> rose: i know. >> and so i -- if i -- i'm a craftman. i'm an artisan. i'm a luxury artist. >> rose: okay. the next one? >> that's a shoe that i designed fofo the cabaret, a burlesque artist. and it's beautiful on. most shoes need to have -- it's always better on. >> rose: (laughs) yes, it is. i can tell you. the next slide? >> this is the shoe i've been talking to you before.
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this is the shoe -- i did the red soul for that shoe. so it was an outline and funny enough, you know, i never worked documents and it's all in my memory. so whenen designed that shoe i put up that andy warhol painting called flowers but i didn't look at it. i just thought of what i was thinking and then i drew that shoe. and when i finished that shoe and i was happy with that one and i added the red sole i looked at the painting and, you know, it's -- the war hole has four petals and no outline, but i'm still happy because i think it's too much of a photocopy so for me it's better to have it coming from my memory and then digest it and do whatever. >> rose: exactly. the >> and the next one is a satin sandal. >> rose: this is very much like for a bird of paradise. an exotic bird.
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>> rose: what do you call it? >> plumette. a girly feather. >> rose: a girly feather. next slide? >> that's a boot, as you see, a flat boot which -- >> rose: do you like boots? >> i love boots. >> rose: you do? >> there are very few styles of shoe that i don't like. i would say just one i don't like. >> rose: what is that? >> it's clogs. >> rose: clogs? >> clogs. because, you know, i think the language of shoes there's something which is very important to, it's the sound, you know, so it's a musical. i love dance and the music of the heel is very important so when i hear -- for instance, you know, you were saying the shoes are coming because you heard -- >> rose: yes, yes, yes.
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>> this is the sound -- when i hear clogs i don't expect a woman. i'm expecting, like, a donkey? >> rose: i got you. i got you. sure. who sells your shoes? >> well, i have myself -- my company has -- we have like 75 stores. >> rose: mostly in europe? >> we have europe, asia, america. >> rose: brazil? >> brazil, yes. >> rose: what about other stores? do they sell them? >> after that i have department stores. barney's, zach's. >> rose: so going in there and buy sures for absolutely -- >> you can buy a big part of the collection in different stores. >> rose: do you have a store in new york? >> i have three stores in new york. >> rose: three stores in new york. >> i have three stores in new york. and i have one in saks and then i have two in las vegas.
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i have 14 stores in america. >> rose: what about china? >> i have three stores in china. i'm opening two others at the end of this year. >> rose: do you design a different group of shoes for the china it that correct. >> no, i'm designing a very vast collection, it's over 150 styles at the beginning so i always love to travel and the funny part is when i see my collection it keeps on -- it reminds know keep on traveling. i look at it and i say this is going to be very nice for indians, sandal is really sort of in the gold colors, et cetera. so i sort of make the collection traveling according to the different types but i do not think, okay, this i'm going to design for china, i'm going to design for america. no. it's a process that's coming after. >> rose: why do you work so hard. >> i always like to work and i just don't think i really work that hard because when you do something that you absolutely. >> rose: it's not work.
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>> it's not work. and i've been really, really fortunate to find what i wanted to do as work very very young. i love shoes for -- since my childhood. since my teenage years. it's a great thing. i never had this thing where you just, you know, go through life and you don't know what you want to do. i've been really, really happy to be able to live my passion. >> r r: here's why i've said that. in -- i guess outside of milano where the factory is your apartment is on top of the factory. >> yes. >> rose: so you can be there because you love the idea of spending a lot of your time thinking about the business, creating the shoes, expanding the empire. yes? >> well, if i have an apartment in -- on the top of the factory it's because it's -- it's easier you know? you don't have to take a car, you don't to go all the way to milan. i spend my whole day in the
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factory outside milano and in the evening, you know, i'm just above it and i keep on being in shoes with all the drawing, the corrections, the new samples, et cetera. so i like to be concentrated so i don't want to have a nice sfpl place in milan and etc. and you think you have a friend, you're gossiping, this type of thing. i'd ratheray where my concentration is in the factory. >> rose: but your happiest days are when you're thinking about designing shoes. >> designing them, thinking of them, correcting them and s sing them be worn. >> rose: and do you think there's a constant evolution in how we think about especially women's shoes? sffrjts you know, there's definitely an evolution. you know, a very simple evolution. when i first started 20 years ago i was doing those heels like three inches and people were
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looking at them, "oh, my god, it's so high!" and now it looks like a kitten heel oar a mid-heel. so for instance in the evolution of heel, in the evolution of shoe the height has completely changed. 20 years after when i look at what is considered high it's double now. and so things have changed, yes. but it's also very much according to modern life, you know? when you walk it's one thing, when you live in the country it's one thing. but when you have a car where you don't really necessarily think of walking so much, things are different. >> rose: suppose i started a shoe company tomorrow. i've been inspired b b you. i'm going start a shoe company. women's shoes and i know what i think is sexy. and so i'm going to create a shoe that i think is sexy and it's going to have a stiletto heel. i also want red soles. and i'm going to have the best red soles i know how to make. do i owe you anything for you that? >> you don't owe me anything for that but i will tell you you have a lot of creativity, you
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decide to do your thing. think of something else. a red sole is a trademark. i'm not the person to explain to you what is a trademark, you may find someone better than me for that. but to not go there and -- >> rose: (laughs) >> and i will tell you, i would encourage you to, you know, to think in a creative way and to not to try to go on knocking off other people. i would say don't look at my shoes. think of yourself, think of what you love and out of that put all this in your design. >> rose: and bring all of your life experiences into that in terms of what you like, the way you like color, the paintings you have seen, art that appeals to you. whatever is beautiful to you, find a way to translate that. >> exactly. i would tell you you've been meeting a lot of people, having wonderful experiences, traveling a lot, put all of this in your memory. put all of this visually, take your pen and start drawing and
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you do not need to look at what other people are thinking is good or bad. >> rose:, what what's your goal? where are you going? >> today'm going to toronto. >> rose: i know there's an exhibition in toronto. but where do you want to be in ten years? >> i probably want to be in ten years where i don't know where i will be but that's what brings a lot of soul to my story. i never decided -- i never started with a straight goal thinking that's what i want to do, that's what i want to be. i've been, you know, leading my professional life of taking care of adventures that were offered to me, listening to people having conversation, what happens to your life and getting led by that. not thinking okay, ten years i
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want 5 stores, five years i want this, i want that. i just let it -- as my shoes it's -- the pace is different my pace is according to what happens to me so in ten years i don't know what will happen to me. just what i want for meis i've been for 21 years free and i sort of think of myself as a free spirit and in my design it's been very important s s wht i just hope for me is to remain free. >> rose: can you imagine doing fashion? can you imagine designing clothes? >> no. professionally if there is one thing that i know for sure is that i do not want to design clothes. you know, i'm not someone, i have never been someone who thought what could i do to be in the fashion industry? the fashion industry has never been the goal for me. i wanted to design shoes and i wanted to design shoes for show girls. i ended up in the fashion
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industry but that is not a thing i would consider apart from my shoes. i was proposed to do clothes design i would absolutely say no it's only because my name rings a bell in the fashion industry but i'm not -- you know, i'd rather keep -- i'd rather keep on being concentrated on what i love to do and what i know i do at my best and that would definitely not be clothing. >> rose: but here we have been for 30 minutes talking in an interesting way about what you do and it happens to meet here. it's the idea for me of a great story is a great story and what happens is that there is a person that's involved the, your ideas that are involved, there is someone who creates something and someone else wants something and whatever the connect is between the two of them, the creator and the recipient, you know, is a kind of magical thing because it's all about ideas. it's all about what has shaped you. it's all about your sense of
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yourself. it's all about the sense of yourself that you want to project. all of that is part of the mix. >> uh-huh. >> rose: right? >> yes, absolutely. you know, therere was this young boy who came with his mother and his mother said "he wanted to meet you." i said "you want to design shoes when you will be a bigger boy?" i said "so why?" he said "because you're a role model for me." i said "why?" he said "well you wanted to do one thing and you just did it and this is why. i don't want to do clothes, i don't want do shoes, but i want to see someone who ouou of nothing has decided to do what he wanted and did it. and i thought it was the nicest compliment. >> rose: it is, indeed. >> he was 15. >> rose: thank you, christian, great to see you again. thank you for joining us. see you next time.
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