Server: Netscape-Commerce/1.12 Date: Thursday, 18-Dec-97 02:30:31 GMT Last-modified: Thursday, 01-May-97 23:41:10 GMT Content-length: 7069 Content-type: text/html
![]() THE BIRTH OF A SHOE COMPANY, AS TOLD BY KENNETH COLE |
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The other way was to do what the big companies do and get a fancy showroom in Midtown Manhattan not far from the Hilton. More identity, much more money too. I had an idea. I called a friend in the trucking business and asked to borrow one of his trucks to park in Midtown Manhattan. |
The only people the city gives parking permits to are production companies shooting full length motion pictures and utility companies like Con Ed or AT&T. So that day I went to the stationery store and changed our company letterhead from Kenneth Cole, Inc. to Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. and the next day I applied for a permit to shoot a full length film entitled "The Birth of a Shoe Company."
We opened for business with a fully furnished 40 ft trailer, a director (Sometimes there was film in the camera, sometimes there wasn't), models as actresses, and two of New York's finest, compliments of Mayor Koch, as our doormen. We sold 40 thousand pairs of shoes in two and a half days (the entire available production) and we were off and running. To this day the company is still named Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. and serves as a reminder to the importance of resourcefulness and innovative problem solving. |
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![]() Kenneth D. Cole President |
© copyright Kenneth Cole Productions Inc. 1997