Kenneth Cole: Kenneth Cole

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.7 • 31.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2020

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kenneth Cole launched his shoe business out of a forty-foot truck in midtown Manhattan and quickly became known as an up-and-coming designer with an eye for street fashion. In 1986, he made a bold move by associating his nascent brand with a controversial issue at the time: the AIDS crisis, and the vital need for research. Through the 1990s and 2000s, Kenneth grew the company into a $500M brand, leading it through downturns, department store consolidation, an IPO and a return to private ownership. Throughout, he stayed committed to AIDS research and many other social causes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New years is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:27.0	Hey, really quick before we start the show, the how I built this book is now a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.
0:35.0	So thank you to all of you who ordered it and for your support of this show.
0:40.0	If you haven't picked it up and you want to learn the secrets of how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, how I built this, the book is for you.
0:49.0	It's now available wherever books are sold and in most countries around the world.
0:54.0	Or by visiting how I built this.com or gyros.com. And thanks.
1:05.0	What happened in 94 was the landscape changed.
1:08.0	When I started my business, there was maybe 70 or 80 departments or change in the United States.
1:15.0	All of a sudden, 10 years later, this may be 15 or 20.
1:19.0	Consolidation.
1:20.0	After consolidations and some bankruptcies. And I said to myself that these guys are going to need to find economies.
1:27.0	I thought at a certain point they'd buy similar shoes under their own labels and I'm not business anymore.
1:34.0	You didn't think that they would just continue to buy Kenneth Cole shoes and sell them?
1:38.0	I didn't. And if you don't see my designs like a train the forest, I'm only as good as you know me to be.
1:44.0	And if I'm not out there, then I don't exist.
1:51.0	From NPR, it's how I built this. A show about innovators, entrepreneurs,
1:59.0	idealists and the stories behind the movements they built.
	...

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