Kenneth Cole

Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City, his father, Charles Cole, owned the El Greco shoe manufacturing company. In 1970, Cole worked as a peanut vendor at Shea Stadium in Queens. Cole graduated from John L. Miller Great Neck North High School in 1972. Before learning the family business, Cole graduated from Emory College of Arts and Sciences of Emory University in 1976. From 1976 to 1982 he was head of design and sales at El Greco.

Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. is an American fashion house founded in 1982 by Cole. Wanting to preview his line of shoes at the New York Shoe Expo at the New York Hilton, but unable to afford the purchase of a hotel room or showroom to display his items, Cole inquired about parking a trailer two blocks from the Hilton Hotel. Upon discovering that permits for trailers were only granted to utility and production companies, Cole changed the name of his company from Kenneth Cole Incorporated to Kenneth Cole Productions, and applied for a permit to film the full-length film The Birth of a Shoe Company. In two and a half days, Kenneth Cole Productions sold 40,000 pairs of shoes, while chronicling the beginning of the company on film.

In 1994, Kenneth Cole Productions went public, and since then it has been included on Forbes annual list of 200 Best Small Companies four times through 2008. Kenneth Cole Productions sells clothing and accessories under the following labels: Kenneth Cole New York, Kenneth Cole Reaction, Unlisted and Gentle Souls. The company’s products are also distributed through department stores, specialty stores, company-owned retail stores, and the internet.

In 1986, Cole met Maria Cuomo, and they married a year later. Maria Cuomo Cole is the daughter of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, and sister of former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and former CNN journalist Chris Cuomo. One of his daughters, Amanda, hosted the Mets Kids Clubhouse for the SportsNet New York cable TV network.

Cole and his wife Maria purchased a $14.5 million co-op in 2008 on Sutton Place, Manhattan. At one time, fashion designer Bill Blass lived in this same building. As of 2018, he and his wife reside on an 11.35 acre estate in suburban Purchase, Westchester County, New York. Together, they have three daughters.

On February 3, 2011, Cole posted an update on Twitter that referenced the 2011 Egyptian protests. The tweet, which indicated that Cole himself wrote the entry, said: "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at (website address) -KC". After outrage and much parody on the microblogging site and on the web in general, Cole deleted the entry and posted a personal apology on Facebook.

In April 2012, the designer sparked controversy portraying the national debate over education as one that pits "Teachers’ Rights vs. Students' Rights". On the West Side Highway southbound entering New York City, a billboard punned to southbound commuters, ”Shouldn’t Everyone Be Well Red?” On Salon, David Sirota claimed that "Cole's campaign is thinly veiled ideological propaganda, and it comes with myriad problems, not the least of which is the simple fact that almost nobody believes "underperforming teachers" should be protected. That includes the nation's biggest teachers' unions, which have been outspoken in backing "accountability" reforms for teacher tenure. So right off the bat, Cole is constructing a straw man, one that has served over the years to pretend that public employee unions in general and teachers' unions specifically are about nothing more than making sure bad employees get to keep their jobs." In response to negative outcry, his company announced on Twitter, "We misrepresented the issue—one too complex for a billboard—and are taking it down."