Steve's journey from shoe business to show business

The man whose life inspired a documentary, a multi award winning movie and musical Kinky Boots is in Torquay this month to see the show, meet the cast and greet the audience. And of course he will be wearing a pair of kinky boots.

It’s been several decades since Steve Pateman holidayed in Torquay as a small boy, visiting Kent’s Cavern and Babbacombe Model Village, and he can’t wait to be back.

Kinky Boots is the story of a struggling shoe manufacturer that reinvented itself making high heeled boots for men. Real life company boss Steve even resorted to shaving his legs to model the boots for photoshoots – and in doing so, saved his business. His story inspired a BBC 2 documentary shown in 1999 called Trouble at the Top. Suddenly the tale of the shoe business became the stuff of show business with the film Kinky Boots in 2005. A year later, Kinky Boots the musical followed, winning a clutch of awards during a six year Broadway run and has toured extensively ever since.

Now it’s the turn of the very popular TOPS musical society to stage the musical and Steve has promised to be in the audience. He’ll be meeting the cast on the stage and also in the foyer chatting to theatre goers. It won’t be difficult to spot him – he’ll be the guy wearing thigh high boots.

The 31 cast have spent many hours learning to walk and dance in high heeled boots. Choreographer Tracey Loveridge reports no injuries so far.

“We were totally blown away when we heard that Steve is coming to see the show,” she said.

“It’s not every day you get to meet the man who inspired the musical you’re in. We all absolutely love the show. It’s such a gritty journey with highs and lows for many of the characters as well as a fantastic score. But the boots are definitely the stars of the show.”

Steve’s story began as a youngster, clambering over the vast machines in the family shoe making business W J Brookes in Northamptonshire that made high quality men’s leather brogues. One of his early jobs was to switch on the heating on Sunday nights to get the factory warmed up for the week’s work ahead.

Then aged 17, Steve followed in the family footsteps of four generations, learning his craft, fully expecting the business to be his life’s work.

“Unfortunately the footwear industry in Britain went into a downturn, because of the arrival of trainers and cheap imports,” explained Steve. “We’d been making 800 pairs of beautifully crafted shoes every day but suddenly we just couldn’t sell them.”

A chance phone call changed all that. Could the factory make thigh-high heeled boots for men? The caller had been let down by suppliers on quality and delivery. Steve took up the challenge, researched the market, created his own designs to accommodate vertiginous heels and metal shanks to support a man’s weight. The gamble paid off, jobs were saved.

The BBC documentary about their turnaround pulled in five million viewers. And Kinky Boots, the film and the musical, were just a catwalk away.

It’s a feelgood musical, jam-packed with catchy numbers by Cyndi Lauper as we follow Steve, now named Charlie Price, struggling to save his business. The story adds a drag queen called Lola who turns design consultant to save the day and the show ends on a high with huge success at a Milan fashion show.

However the story ended differently for Steve.

He says: “Initially we enjoyed great success, launching our range at a trade show in Dusseldorf and it kept us going a bit longer. But our success was inevitably emulated, our designs copied, with the same old problem of cheap imports flooding the market. We had no choice but to close the factory in 2000, after 115 years of trading. The building is now a block of flats. I still miss the shoe making business. It’s terrible when a family business closes on your watch.”

However, Steve was very involved in the making of the film, appearing briefly in a crowd scene and is still in touch with many of the cast. He had so much fun on the set that it got him thinking. He sat down to write the story.

“I had this huge wealth of stories about the factory, the fun we had there over the years, how we got into making kinky boots and then the film, that I realised that this whole crazy journey should be written down. So Boss In Boots is MY story. It’s the real story behind Kinky Boots from day one and all the wonderful people I’ve met. I’m very proud of it.”

Boss In Boots is available on Amazon and via www.bossinboots.co.uk. You can also buy a copy at the theatre, signed by the man himself, in those thigh high boots. You won’t miss him!

The show at the Princess runs from Wednesday September 7 to  Saturday September 10