The Rise Of Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole hatched his eponymous brand in 1982 from the back of a trailer. Almost 20 years after taking his fashion company public - at its height, it reached a market cap of around $850 million - he took it private again in 2012, when it was valued at $280 million. Earlier this year Cole, 61, relinquished the CEO title (for the second time) of the now billion-dollar brand, maintaining his role as chief creative officer. Cole spoke recently about the seductions and pitfalls of being a public company, and why he believes private companies have more strategic swagger.

- Jeff Chu, photograph by Meredith Jenks

MY FATHER HAD A SHOE FACTORY in a depressed and rough area of New York City called Williams burg. I was just out of college and working with him, on my way to law school, but I kept putting that off. So we started a shoe business together called Candie’s, which became very successful. Shortly after that, I decided to venture off to do something very personal, knowing that waiting would only make that harder to do as my life got more complicated. I figured if I didn’t do it then, I might never do it.

IT STARTED WITH WOMEN’S SHOES. I knew women’s shoes. I named the company Kenneth Cole because I didn’t have a lot of time to make up a name. We didn’t have Google then. We didn’t have the ability to trademark search as efficiently as we do today. I couldn’t take the chance of making up a name.

I REMEMBER WAKING up one morning in 1994 after I’d been in business for 10 years. I saw in the newspaper that there was a tender offer by Federated Department Stores to buy Macy’s. Both were already totally leveraged; they were going to have to be a lot more efficient. They couldn’t sell cheaper; they were going to have to buy better, which meant removing the middleman. I said to myself, “I’m the middleman!”—selling a commodity. It was a moment of fear. I went to bed on Friday night. By Sunday after noon, I realized, “I don’t have to be the middleman. I can build a brand.” If my brand becomes the destination, then I have a reason to exist.