Top 121 Quotes & Sayings by Kenneth Cole

My father had a shoe factory in a depressed and rough area of New York City called Williamsburg.

Twitter is a very powerful platform for adversarial feedback.

When we get up in the morning, what we put on is very much a reflection of how we see the world and how we want it to see us.

In the early years I had no real plan. I figured it out as I went, which is easier to do when you don't have a lot of staff and overhead. Back then I believed my job was just to create great-looking shoes. That wasn't true. I learned that the shoes needed to fit, be comfortable, and not fall apart.

I work out with my trainer at 5 A. M. three times per week and I also skip dessert - most of the time.

I'm sure some people haven't necessarily embraced some of the messages over the years. We've been talking about the inappropriateness of automatic weapons and guns since the late Eighties. I know we've lost some customers over the years, and in some ways, secured others.

My job isn't to tell people what they should wear. My job is to find out what they want and give it to them in a way they didn't quite expect.

I'm actually in the process of running from office. I've got so much access and ability to do so much great social outreach and public service as a private person.

There are only so many things we can do that make us feel better. We pick up the newspapers and we want to cry every day. We turn on the news and we want to jump out the first window, jump in front of the first truck.

I've struggled with that over the years: Is fashion relevant? Is it frivolous? Is it trivial? Because I give so much of my essence to it, as do everybody I work with.

When you go public, the value equation of your company changes immediately. It is valued on anticipated earnings.

It's hard to ignore the hand that feeds you, and today our communities are far more needy than they've ever been, and governments neither have the will nor the ability in many cases to provide the services that they need to.

I never really had long range plans. I take one season at a time, every day at a time.

What people are consuming is what things represent. It's people defining themselves through what they wear.

It's very hard to argue against the message that we all have AIDS. It's not hard to make the case that we all have been affected, both culturally and spiritually.

If a brand is relevant anywhere, it's essentially viable everywhere.

We don't just make shoes, we try to stay in touch with the world around us.

I am the closest of all to my wife, who is in and of herself a change agent and has committed to impacting the realities of homelessness - and making sure I get out of the house every day to do what I have to do.

In my opinion, being able to do some form of service is a gift. The one that provides the service is the greatest beneficiary - I will attest to it.

I love black. Anything black transforms lives in a profound way, particularly for women.

When I was younger I would often go to nightclubs and sit in the best-lit corner to look at what people chose to wear, or I'd go out and around the city - to places where people express their sense of what they think looks good. So, I get a sense of that, and then I try to interpret it.

It is great to be known for your shoes. It is even better to be recognized for your soul.

I think the power of messaging is saying something in as few words as possible, because I think we all essentially have ADD. It's not a clinically diagnosed state anymore; it's a socially imposed state.

What's so great about my business is that every day is different than the day prior.

I had left the runway because I had come to believe that it was questionably relevant and appropriate, because we were creating clothes that, to a large degree, never ended up making it to the stores. And the runway was being seen in markets where those clothes weren't available.

My job is to create a business model that's built on a platform that has the ability to change quickly.

Everybody struggles to find a balance between their personal lives and their professional lives, and in some cases, their connection with the community. So what I've looked to do over the years is marry as many of those as I can.

Life in my shoes has gotten me relatively far. Though it's also gotten me into trouble on occasion.

I'm a pragmatist, and I don't like gratuitous fashion - in fact, there's not that much gratuitous anything in my life.

Through my ongoing work as a UNAIDS Ambassador and with the End AIDS Coalition, I remain personally committed to aligning resources and galvanizing global action and working with amfAR to make AIDS history.

Shoes are by far the most complicated thing to bring to market. It's not just design. You need engineering.

I love not being public.

Finding a way to make a difference is arguably far more defining than any collection I have brought to market.

I grew up in the New York area.

My job, I believe, is to convince you to allow me to be part of your brand. Then when you look to present yourself a certain way you'll come to me, go to our website, and you'll buy want you want in the color you want, in the size you want, for the season you want.

None of what I do is political. My messages are social and human messages. In many cases, they've been politicized but they are so much bigger than that.

I named the company Kenneth Cole because I didn't have a lot of time to make up a name.

I've come to realize nobody needs what we sell. There's hardly a woman who needs another pair of black shoes.

What's so great about this industry is that you have to be able to reinvent yourself every day.

My bedroom was my executive office. Buyers came to my apartment and that's where they saw the collections.

We are trying to speak to the consumer by their lifestyle.

Giving back is something most companies look to do at certain times of the year. We as a company look to do it all year.

Over the years, I have found a way to use this business and this platform to talk with people about important issues. To the degree you can bring a sense of purpose to what you do, it makes the relationship with the customer that much more meaningful and purposeful.

Rest is overrated.

I've always believed that how you look is a self-fulfilling prophecy: When you wake up, get dressed and look in the mirror, if you think you look good, most likely you will.

Every day, we all make the critical decision of what we're going to wear, because many of the people we encounter in a day don't get to know anything more about us than how we present ourselves. That decision - totally on our own terms - is a powerful one.

After working with my father for two years, we started Candie's, a line of imported shoes from Italy. Then in 1982 I set out to start my own business.

I need to distort not just leather and fabric, but also words. It's a disorder I have.

If every shoe store in America stops selling shoes, no one's going to go barefoot for 15, 20 years. No one needs shoes, for the most part. We have shoes; our problem is what to do with them.

I've always believed that fashion is not just what you look like on the outside, it's a reflection of who you are on the inside.

Often people ask me about getting involved in service and philanthropy, and my first advice is: Make sure it's real and it's transparent.

We will redo a shoe 15 times before we get it right, to get it where it should be and hopefully it will fit and look the way it should.

In the fashion business, there weren't any rules. In fact, the better you were at creating something new, the greater the likelihood you would be successful.

I came to realize that the law is about a book of rules, and he who learns them best, and is the most creative in interpreting them, goes furthest.

My first AIDS campaign was in 1985. There was this dark cloud, everybody was socially inspired - we hadn't seen social consciousness like that since the '60s - but most people were talking about hunger in Africa. Nobody was talking about this really ominous circumstance here in the U.S. because of this fear of stigma.

We all walk in different shoes. What one does may not be right for everybody.

Not taking those few moments in the morning to decide what you're saying to people by how you're choosing to dress is a lost opportunity.

Asking people for money is a hard thing to do. But helping people do the right thing is not hard. So I often call people up and suggest ways they can spend their money to make a meaningful impact, and I don't feel I've asked them for money.

People don't always read things the way they are intended.

I find that people look to personalize their fashion alternatives.