Kenneth Cole: Four Decades of Fashion and Activism Celebrated at FN Achievement Awards 2024
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On Dec. 4, Kenneth Cole will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 38th annual FN Achievement Awards. Below is an article from the magazine’s Dec. 2 print issue about his career and impact on the fashion industry.
It’s one week after the 2024 U.S. presidential election — and Kenneth Cole is opening his tried-and-true playbook to plot his next move.
While the country has never been more divided and the new administration will bring more uncertainty, the veteran designer remains undeterred in his commitment to stand up for the burning social issues that matter. As Cole often says, “It’s great to be known for your shoes, but it’s even better to be known for your soul.”
That mantra is certainly top of mind right now for the executive, one of the few fashion players who was vocal during this election cycle — whether he was speaking out about abortion, climate change or a host of other hot topics.
“We don’t talk about political issues. We talk about important social issues that influence the products we bring to market and overwhelm us as consumers and individuals every day,” he said. “It’s what I’ve always done. There’s no reason we shouldn’t do it — and more going forward in light of the vacuum we’re likely to see.”
Four decades after he founded his namesake brand, Cole continues to be known for his activism. He’s lent his name to big, and controversial, issues since the 1980s, most notably HIV/AIDS.
At the time, the epidemic was something no one would touch — not even President Reagan, who did not give a major address on the crisis until 1987. But Cole became a voice for the voiceless and brought awareness of the disease to the masses through provocative ads.
For the company’s first advertisements supporting amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research — a nonprofit Cole was active in for 30 years — the designer enlisted photographer Annie Leibovitz to shoot supermodels of that time and children, to destigmatize the disease and show it could affect anyone. They went barefoot to avoid being seen as exploitative.
Since that first 1986 campaign, his efforts have never ceased — even when his company went public in 1994, which brought more eyes and more opinions from the public than ever before. You may remember the ad “If the Pope Had AIDS He’d Need More Than Just Your Prayers” going viral in 1996, for instance. The campaign, though it never actually ran, garnered so much press that they received a desist letter from the Archdiocese of New York.
“The stigma attached to people who spoke about AIDS was so debilitating, so I realized I could just speak about the fact that nobody was speaking about it, which was questionably prudent to most. Probably more mature businesspeople would have — and did — opt not to go down that road. It was a treacherous road,” Cole said. “But it’s one we chose to go down and it changed the man, changed the brand, changed the company forever. Everything suddenly became and felt more meaningful and worthwhile.”
Cole has gone on to support a range of social justice movements, including gun reform, homelessness, the Iraq war, climate change, aid to Haiti and women’s rights.
During the 2024 election, abortion was one of the most-discussed issues, and Cole used his platform to support Planned Parenthood and raise awareness about the threat to women’s reproductive rights following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2023.
“It is absolutely about our collective public health, and it’s not just a woman’s issue, it’s a man’s issue, and everything we do is interdependent, so it’s crucial that conversation finds an audience and continues to be part of what we do,” he said.
On how Trump’s administration and plans could impact the shoe industry as a whole, Cole cited uncertainties, highlighting the potential increase of consumer prices, the impact on labor and manufacturing costs, as well as labor shortage.
“If you institute tariffs on goods that are brought into the country, the consumer is the one who pays for it, not the country who’s exporting those goods. At the end of the day, it’s going to be inflationary at a certain level. Access to labor is going to have to all be reconsidered now, especially with the approach to immigrants,” he continued. “Social impact is going to [continue], the method of delivering a lot of that is going to be recalibrated, and its urgency becomes more important. We have to stay on message.”
One of Cole’s most recent fights has been against the stigma of mental health. In 2019, Cole helped to found The Mental Health Coalition, a large-scale effort aimed at bringing together influential nonprofits, businesses, brands and celebrities in a coordinated effort catalyzing like-minded communities to work together to empower access to life-changing resources. Since its founding, MHC has garnered nearly 1 billion impressions through unique online and in-person programming.
“Kenneth Cole has made a lasting impact on the shoe industry by creating accessible and well-made designs. His commitment to social causes sets him apart,” said Steven Kolb, CEO of The Council of Fashion Designers of America. “I respect his dedication to using his platform for good. Professionally, his vision and resilience have shaped his brand and the broader industry.”
In many ways, a career in fashion and footwear was Cole’s destiny.
He got his start in the shoe business with his father, Charles Cole, who had a small factory in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., called El Greco. That company eventually produced the famous Candies brand, with help from his son.
While Cole was originally on his way to law school, he couldn’t escape the family business. “I was fascinated by the process of creating a prototype, creating a shoe, and the uniqueness of the art form. It has elements of architecture, of engineering, of traditional design. And if any of that gets changed even ever so slightly, you have a totally different product. So I learned how to make patterns. I learned how to make shoes,” he said.
In a full-circle moment, Cole remembered creating his first collection of shoes for his father and landing on the cover of FN. “That article was a big influence. From that day, I looked at my opportunity in life very different than I did before,” he said. After that, his father encouraged him to actually sell the shoes, and he landed at Franklin Simon & Co., a department store on 34th Street at the time. “They had a hard time saying no to me. They bought a few pairs of those shoes and sent me on this journey,” he said.
After spending nearly five years learning the ins and outs of the business with his father, Cole set out to launch his own venture, Kenneth Cole Productions, in 1982. As the story goes, the designer infamously parked a trailer outside a footwear trade show in Midtown Manhattan, selling 40,000 pairs of women’s shoes in three-and-a-half days, under the guise of a production company shooting a full-length motion picture. He called it “The Birth of a Shoe Company.”
Success came swiftly. Shortly after the brand’s launch, he opened his first store in New York and debuted men’s footwear. By 2003, he had stores globally, fashion week shows and categories outside of footwear, including apparel, fragrance, jewelry, sunglasses, kids and more.
The exec created an accessible brand with longevity, one that epitomized New York fashion, according to Pete Nordstrom, president and chief brand officer of Nordstrom Inc.
“I first met Kenneth about 40 years ago when I was a young shoe buyer, and he had a hot new brand. His styles were fresh and cool, like the grosgrain bow pump and velvet shoes with a granny-style heel. [My brothers] Blake and Erik and I got to know Kenneth well and viewed him as a trusted partner in the shoe business. Our relationship has endured, and we still keep in touch,” Nordstrom said. “Kenneth is incredibly talented and passionate about the industry. I feel fortunate to call him a friend and that Nordstrom has been a business partner with him since the beginning.”
Kenneth Cole shoes were a hot commodity when they came onto the scene. They could be found in major department stores such as Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue. As traction with big retailers helped the business grow, going public made sense for the brand. In 1994 the company made the leap.
But after 18 years under stakeholders’ watchful eyes, Cole took his company private in 2012. Part of the decision came down to Cole’s true moral compass: leading a purpose-driven brand. By going smaller, he could get bigger — on his own terms.
“The reason we’ve been successful over the years is we put everything through a filter of a being agile. Can we respond to change? Are we relevant? And are we profitable? Heel heights are a very fast-moving target,” said Cole. “I decided early on, if we can make what we do [be about] not just what you stand in but what you stand for, then we have a more sustainable and meaningful relationship that will transcend any given trend. It’s gotten us through some very significant changes in the industry and in our business and in our lives.”
While the company remains steadfast on social impact, product and design is still key to the brand story. President Jed Berger, who was tapped for the role in 2022 to help fuel the next stage of growth, said Cole is obsessed with building functionality into fashion. “Nobody appreciates a well-placed zipper or a strategic stretch like Kenneth. He does this without compromising style, and these pieces are consistently the best sellers,” he said. This year, the founder also relaunched women’s apparel with help from a newly appointed women’s creative director, his daughter Emily Cole.
Working with his daughter has been a dream that he never thought would come to life, Cole said. While Emily began her career as a lawyer, she is now following her father’s footsteps in the family business.
“Anyone can make shoes,” she said. “But he’s built something special with people who want to be part of something bigger than themselves. That, hopefully, will be the most important part of the legacy.”
For 38 years, the annual FN Achievement Awards — often called the “Shoe Oscars” — have celebrated the style stars, best brand stories, ardent philanthropists, emerging talents and industry veterans. The 2024 event is supported by sponsors Listrak, Marc Fisher, Nordstrom and Vibram.
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