Kenneth Cole

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

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

“I've realized that people come to the brand not just for the products we make, but because of what we stand for.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Ads create dialogue, they create conversation, they create attention - that's our objective.”

“I always believe that if you're looking at a magazine and I'm one of 40 ads, I - in effect - get one-fortieth of your attention. But if, when you close that magazine, you're still thinking about my ad, I've got a lot more than one-fortieth of your attention.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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 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.”

“Twitter is a very powerful platform for adversarial feedback.”

“I believe what has kept us relevant over the years is not just the fashion which has sometimes been more timely than other times but has also been our messages, which have consistently reflected the context of the world we're living in and what was happening and that which was affecting what we were thinking and what was inspiring us.”

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

“The best solution is very much the least expensive and most creative.”

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

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

“When I first fell in love with Maria, it was because she really cares about things.”

“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.”