The seventh of twelve children born to a family of itinerant traveling cobblers, El Tigre Furtivo grew up caravanning throughout the deserts of Southwest America and Northern Mexico selling custom footwear alongside his 11 brothers and sisters, who all learned the secrets of the shoe from their Padre, and their impeccable business acumen from their Madre.
Tragically, both parents died in a totally preventable and avoidable Gila monster stampede while gathering skins for their next batch of shoes. Orphaned at just fourteen years of age, El Tigre was now the oldest male in the family, and the dangerous job of collecting Gila skins fell squarely upon his capable shoulders.
Using the cobbling skills passed down from his padre, El Tigre fashioned a pair of Gila hunting shoes made from the skins of the very lizards that killed his parents. These shoes were so incredibly silent, the dastardly Gilas were no match. Darting from cover to cover, one hiding place to the next, he could remain unnoticed by the venomous beasts until the time was right to strike. It was in these shoes that he earned his moniker “The Sneaky Tiger.”
With a steady supply of skins, and the necessary skills passed down from their parents, El Tigre and his band of siblings grew their parents business into a sprawling shoe empire spanning towns all along the border of the US and Mexico.
To this day, El Tigre Furtivo visits his parent’s graves each year to pay his respects and update them on the thriving shoe empire their children have built. Viva el Zapato Bello!