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Kenneth Cole: Doing well by doing good

In the early 1980s, Kenneth Cole left his father’s sensible-shoe factory and struck out on his own. His incredible success in the years that followed grew out of more than a knack for design. Cole had a talent for catching people’s attention by advertising social causes as well as shoes. He’s highlighted everything from racial profiling — “we all walk in different shoes” — to gun control. Perhaps his best-known campaign focused on AIDS at a time when few people talked publicly about the disease: “Wear a rubber . . . sole.”

Cole did more than create awareness. In 1987, he joined the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, which funded some of the earliest medical research. Today, he chairs that board and helped with a recently released documentary called “The Battle of amfAR,” which chronicles the struggle for AIDS funding in the early years.

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Recently, Cole received an award from the Millennium Campus Network, a Boston-headquartered organization of young people who are trying to tackle challenges with development and poverty around the world. Cole told the audience that he started his annual shoe drive for the homeless during a slow period for sales. Customers who brought in old shoes were given 20 percent off a new pair. Everyone benefited. It’s a great reminder that social causes can be good for business, and vice versa.