Kenneth Cole – The Sikh
"We all Walk in Different Shoes"
A few days ago, Kenneth Cole unveiled one of his new ads on a wall of Rockefeller Center in New York City. The model is, surprisingly, a sardar.
The campaign features Sandeep (aka: Sonny) Caberwal as a Sikh and in the below video he explains about being a Sikh and standing out.
Read more about it at on SikhNet and on SikhChic or KennethCole.com
90 Responses to “Kenneth Cole – The Sikh”
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Awesome!
Kudos to Kenneth Cole.A right step towards social awareness.
We,the sardars, also walk in style with our heads high.This indeed is a true reflection of the changing face of America.
This should also act as a source of inspiration to handful of misguided few to not only preserve their identity but also to feel proud.
This is ironic and wonderful! Last Thursday night Harimanderjot S and his Dad, Guru Bachan Singh and Guru Mustuk’s Dad (my husband) and I were driving down 5th Ave in Manhattan and we saw this Huge huge poster on the side of the building. WE were shocked and drove around just to get another look at this surprising Sikh image on fashionable 5th Ave, Manhattan.
It is wonderful and recalls how in the Fall of 2007 when the Rubin Museum was doing a Sikh Art Exhibit,
they too had a huge full side of the building print of Guru Teg Bahadur in Mogul style Art. It was wonderful and I do appreciate these beautiful references to our Sikh image.
I go about the city with a beautiful white turban and I always dress in white beautiful bana to be noticed and admired. Now I have some company.
Wow! this is amazing, Designer companies should have one Sikh model, kind of stands out, this is the image our great Guru Gobind Singhji created for all of us .I am proud to be a SIKH nee
Kenneth Cole deserves our attention during our next shopping trip.
Its kinda sweet that they would do this, but is this just a way to get sikhs into purchasing Kenneth Cole merchandise? Even if it is, hell props for doing such a thing. I hope now our young kids can look at this and see that being a keshdhari sikh isnt bad at all and its cool!
I love it..
This is very cool, it also raises awareness of sikh community which is not positively prevalant in mainstream social media.
Bravo K.Cole for their excellent taste in the add. A real model material. I’ll like to reward them for their effort.
Good job!
This is sooo amazing….mad props to Kenneth Cole
he he, how cool is that. hoo hoo.
Awesome dude! I wish I was a sardar now…
oye bhalle bhalle!
WOW!!!!!!!
CAN I HAVE THE MODELS NUMBER:-)LOL
A MODEL THAT I CAN ADORE NOW COOLLLLLLLL
KEEP IT UP KENNETH COLE :-*
Thank you Kenneth Cole. We needed a start to this kind of awareness of the Sikh identity and hope others follow their footsteps especially Indian companies who still fail to recognise the sardars as models for their companies. By the way Kenneth Cole didn’t need this avert to sell their merchandise to target sikhs becuase I have been wearing their watches for the last 8 to 10 years regardless.
Wow… really nice… now even I feel like keeping my kesh :( …
sardars do rock!!!!!!
This is fabulous! Sardars are really getting there! Really neat!
Very cool….who is he?
really impressive, thank you for highlighting, what a cool looking dude.
The reaction of various comments indicate to me that one has to be a model to become a good and proud Sikh. How hollow we have become intellectually? Are going to decide the future of our religion and Sikhs in general by these models and the so-called illusionary icons. That is not some thing that would make me proud. Where are the real tradions and values of our religion that made us unique and some thing to look upto? I think our younger generations are being misled by the false and illusionary icons created by the western civilization. I hope that the current religious and political leadership of our religion and the various related bodies look at this and try to rectify the trend and go for corrective approaches. ILLUSIONS ARE ILLUSIONS AND SHOULD NOT BE FOLLOWED.
Very very nice…Cool looking guy
Wow real nice photo. CHAK DE FHATTE NEW YORK. NEW YORK ROCKS ESPECILLY FLUSHING
More info about the model at SikhChic
Congrats for the great work. Please keep it up!!
This is awesome! Waheguru! Does anyone know more about the model?
I’m definitely going to buy Kenneth Cole products now! ; )
I wish we had a better looking Dastaar…his fifty is like HUGGGEEE!! maybe the next GAP Sikh model can rock a better dastaar! =)
He’s HOTTTT ;) :P
Come on Sikhs! Even in the world of fashion there comes a point when all the images have been recycled. Bennetton have known this for years! A Sikh Sardar just adds something new to look and different to look at in a North American culture where the average person is subjected to nearly 4,000 commercial messages per day. The Sikh man stands out against the normal eye-candy of rake-thin models pouting in rags that pass for fashion.
Get a grip Sikhs, people have not switched onto the Sikh culture anymore than watching the orange suited Phillippino prisoners dancing to ‘Thriller’, on YouTube, has done anything for improving prison conditions in that country. 15 minutes of fame is now down to 15 seconds.
And to the person getting excited in ‘Flushing’ do you think its a coincidence that your town gets its’ name from something associated with toilets?!
Walk with your heads held high but don’t look too far up to see images that resemble you but are only in it to sell, sell, sell!
It is fantastic… well done kenneth cole…..what a cool looking sardar….who is he?
Brilliant THEME by Kenneth Cole;Great Social awareness.
We all walk in different shoes to protect our feet as a basic reason;We all with different looks,several Faiths and believes but for the ONE basic reason.
cheers to K.Cole…it’s about time a SIKH stepped up in this field…I give more credit to the model than the advertisers though…
Always loved K.Cole stuff but now will adore it and will stop by 5th ave before going home tonight to see it myself….
Outstanding. It’s admirable K. Cole is looking out side the box when choosing models. This is just flat out awesome.
We Sikhs are mainstream America. Like a friend of mine said “I am much of an American as the American Pie next to me”.
Don’t let your image which the Guru has given you become an obstacle of life. Yet embrace it and think if every Sikh began maintaining their true identity how much more of a presence we would have in society.
All Sikhs should be proud of their heritage.
I use to wear different brands of leather shoes…
Since now, I will use only Kenneth Cole!
Wonderful!
Livtar Singh
Lima, Perú
South America
amazing!!
i found the kenneth cole link…
http://www.kennethcole.com/thinkers/bio6.asp
WOW, How great is that!!!
As a mother of two daughters and one sardar son,
I am so pleased K Cole made this add if for no other reason but to show that we are all beauitful. Like it or not we are such a media oriented society. Thanks K cole!
K.C. has done some amazing work by introducing this sikh model to its fashion image.
Definitely shows that sikhs are thriving & can certainly flourish in ALL aspects of living.
Hats off to the model for representing our entire community & gratitude to K.C. for acknowledging us and our religion!
Unique theme, unique model, and unique company =)
How wonderful to see a well-spoken, handsome young man in a mainstream ad. I am tired of seeing Sardars portrayed as buffoons or clowns wearing vulgar, outlandish clothes and speaking in a countrified accent. Well-done Sandeep and Kenneth Cole.
LOVE IT! Thanks to K Cole for giving us Sikhs an opportunity to show who we are. As far as the Model (Sandeep) goes, he looks OUTSTANDING. I even showed this ad to my 2 sons and told them you don’t have to loose your identity to be someone, be proud of who you are. Excellent work.
it gr8 but i wish he had sed that as a sikh not as a sikh man in the begging and i wish he added one or two of the values that the turan stood for , otherwise its gud
We Sikhs are a proud community all over the world and this ad has made us prouder.
Kudos to Kenneth Cole and Sandeep Singh.
Charan Jit Singh
Sydney, Australia
Kenneth cole has done what no one else could accomplish. No! dont think negative (” a way for sikhs to buy his good..”). We dont have that purchasing power. We should however honor mr cole and of course, there’s nothing wrong with boycotting all french goods ( I have) and buying kenneth cole: Do little we can. Facilitate people who help us and vice versa.
Tom
Awesome!!!!! We need more role models like this Singh!!:) Thank you Gurmustuk for sharing this. Gurmustuk Singh ji you are one more my heroes as well!!!:) I have said this many times and will keep saying it bcoz it means so much to me and to many Sikhs all over the world that view your site on a daily basis that this Sikhnet site is such a gift from waheguru, this site has given so much knowledge, spirit, confidence, love, peace, understanding that I could have never received in my life!. May Waheguru bless you all Gurmustuk, Guruka Singh, and all of you who put in so much effort and love to keep this site running. You have no idea how much this site alone has helped me in life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!! One last thing, the new featured wallpaper is breathtakingly beautiful!!!!, Thank you! Waheguru bless your souls. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
I’m happy to see a Sikh such as Sandeep feature in an advertisement and give a short piece of information regarding himself and his religion. Society needs to be educated a bit more on every faith in my view.
Anybody have any idea on how to become a model? I wouldn’t mind featuring in an advert and talking a little about my life experiences & faith. :P
maharaj kirpa x
Hilarious that a few are even mentioning/questioning that KC used the sikh model as a sales pitch… ofcourse they did! thats why they advertise why else would they do it?
It is a brilliant theme by KC and I just hope that more and more of companies do the same and Sikhs get portrayed as something different than just “buffoons or clowns wearing vulgar, outlandish clothes and speaking in countrified accent” as mentioned by Rupinder.
As SinghisKing mentioned fiffty is too big and another thing I noticed his Turban is tied in wrong direction. I know people will give reason that he might be other handed, but look at the vid posted at youtube there it is in right direction. I won’t be surprised that somone tied this turban and he just used it as “Topi” to pose for the picture. You can see his right hand on his shades so flip of picture can also be ruled out.
But on the whole it brings out Sikh Identity to the American public, which is nothing new in Manhattan area. This very same ad could’ve done more service to Sikh community in red neck areas, who usually mistake Sikhs as Arabs.
Dil Sidhu mentioned it’s all about sell, sell sell which is quite correct. But we can use this image to promote Sikhi to our present & future generations so we can give them something to look up and have strong faith in their identity and feel proud of it.
Another thought is that I hear lot of Sikh (Singhs) saying that due to our identity we get singled out and discriminated. I feel sad for such Singhs that the whole purpose of thier identity was to be singled out in millions and it’s a good thing that you are singled out, you are recognized. People are going to look at you and be jealous due to the attention your are getting and will try to pinpoint things in you, so these Singhs need to stay strong and accept that discrimination in good ways.
I had totally forgotten about the email that was sent around a while back when Kenneth Cole was looking for a Sikh for this promo. I was reading Sepia Mutiny and remembered this when Ennis posted a link about this.
Even if it is a promo for KC…it’s great. I’m sure companies are looking for more ways to stand out and have to be creative to come up with new ideas to get people to notice them. This is perfect for that.
Hi!..it’s always happy time to see Sikhs rising up in the world.
I WOULD LOVE TO BE IN TOUCH MORE AND GET UPDATES FOR MORE OF THE NEWS.
Harimandarjot singh and his family are great and are great Sewdars.
Thanks!..do not what else to say?..cauz haven’t been in touch with any one for long time.
waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ki fateh
Guru Gobind Singh created a khalsa, so a single sikh standing in 100000 can be recognized that there is a sikh. Kenneth Cole promoted their product in line with Guru khalsa faith. Congratulation to promoter and clean shaven sikh should have lesson from this? American are happy to see proud sikhs, who maintain their identity.
This is not first time a sikh model is used by a multinational outfit, IBM did it many many years back. I had a note pad and on it’s side they had pictures.
But, it’s nice to see a sikh model on NY billboards.