By skyforbes 
Chapter 1: Shiloh and the Shoeman
In the shadowy corners of TikTok, where conspiracies mix with creepypasta and reality blurs into myth, a mysterious figure has surfaced: Shiloh Hill, better known by his screen name “@Thunder_Keck.”
To most, he’s an amateur wrestler with a knack for urban exploration and a fearless curiosity for the internet’s darker underbelly.
But to a growing number of late-night scrollers and digital truth-seekers, he’s something more: a kind of modern myth-hunter, documenting anomalies, lost media and strange phenomena buried in the digital depths of the dark web.
One of his most chilling discoveries has since become the subject of fevered speculation and fragmented investigation across TikTok, Reddit, and niche corners of the web.
The story begins with Hill’s first video documenting a dark web storefront, “The Shoeman: Keeper of Soles,” with the caption “Something feels off about this darkweb shoes site.”
The site was plain yet ominous in appearance — a black background, simple text, and a strange premise: a shoe rental service.
But it didn’t stop at listing sizes.
It listed names.
It listed ages.
And each pair of shoes — boots, sneakers, sandals—was worn, damaged, and stained.
Some were covered in what appeared to be mud, others dirt, and a few displayed unmistakable smears of blood.
Yet all the shoes listed demanded well over $100 per pair.
At first, Hill suspected a twisted art project or a scam, highly skeptical that he would receive anything at all if he were to make a purchase.
But morbid curiosity got the better of him.
He placed an order from the mysterious Shoeman for the only footwear that would fit him.
A pair of boots labeled: “Waylon 29s.”
The package containing the boots, to Hill’s surprise, that he had not been ripped off by this sketchy website on the dark web, arrived a week later.
Inside were a pair of light brown leather boots, heavily scuffed and stained with what appeared to be blood.
But the left boot contained something else — a VHS tape tucked deep in the sole.
Hill, while nervous of what he was getting himself into, was determined to see this through and ordered a VCR off eBay.
But before it arrived, and having worn the boots to work already, he decided to test the boots with luminol, a chemical used at crime scenes, to see if it was truly blood.
To his surprise — and horror, the boots lit up like a Christmas tree, leading to his regret of wearing them earlier and to a more paranoid disposition for the duration of the series.
But finally, after three days of waiting (an eternity on TikTok), the VCR arrived.
Chapter 2: The Tape
The VHS tape, which was once tucked inside the blood-stained boot, was retrieved, the VCR was set up, and that night, he pressed play.
The tape, viewable in full above, runs roughly an hour and 20 minutes.
It features a disjointed sequence of visuals: grainy commercials from the 1990s and early 2000s played in reverse, clips of wild animals in distress, eerie fragments from old black-and-white films and most disturbingly, slots with names of the renters of these shoes to make their own “submissions.”
Threaded throughout this unsettling montage were abrupt flashes of cryptic messages — brief, jarring interjections that appeared to be direct commands or proclamations from the Shoeman himself, including:
“The collection must grow.”
“All who watch must submit.”
“Add or be added.”
“Submit and be judged.”
Whoever the Shoeman is, his intentions seem deeply sinister. The tape appears designed not just to disturb, but to lure viewers into something far darker — perhaps even manipulate or blackmail them into committing murder themselves.
Hill would react to the tape in his following video, clearly shaken while sitting in a hoodie in a dark room; you can even tell by the footage that he turned the brightness on his screen down, potentially, maybe even correctly, thinking he was being watched.
“Basically, it’s just a bunch of messages and old movie clips pasted together, and then there are a bunch of slots called ‘submissions.’” Hill said, “Some of those submission slots have videos inside of them where the boots are shown, and if those are real, it’s pretty messed up. I now know why they asked for my name because there is a slot with my name created in there, but there is no video in mine.”
Chapter 3: The Twist
Like any good modern-day horror story, there is a twist.
But this is not only real, but potentially deadly.
In a short 15-second video following the VHS tape reaction, one of the boots with the heel cut off is shown, and outside of it, lies a tracking device; the lights on the device blinking every couple of seconds.
The video is captioned “Never ordering shoes off the dark web again.”
In a follow-up to that video, he posted yet another video explaining the tracking device and what he had learned about its potential sinister nature.
“The lights that were blinking on the chip when I opened it up means that it was connected to cellular and had a GPS signal,” Hill said, “But it stopped blinking like five minutes after I made the video, and I haven’t seen it blink since. So I’m not sure if it can be remotely shut off, or if it just died, or if it has a power saving mode.”
“Gonna check out the SIM card or order a burner phone to like, put the SIM card into it to see what network it is. I also might be able to actually connect to the chip and see what code it was running. I’m cautious to, like, cut the power to the thing, or put it in a Faraday cage because I don’t want whoever is monitoring it, if there is someone monitoring it, to see that the signal’s lost.”
“What people notice is all the submissions that are labeled as ‘invalid’ are also the names of people on the site with the shoes. And one of the messages that’s repeated a lot is ‘submit or be submitted.’”
Hill, once again, was subject to his morbid curiosity and eventually returned to the website to see if there were any new submissions.
But then, just as suddenly as the website appeared, it was taken down, showing that the “Onion site has been disconnected.”
One thing was for certain: the Shoeman knew what Shiloh was doing.
And if the people who made an invalid submission were truly the same ones who were to appear on the site as fresh pairs of shoes, Hill might really be in trouble.
Chapter 4: A Message From the Shoeman
In a new phase of the investigation, Hill was determined to find out more information about the Shoeman.
He purchased a burner phone and immediately put the SIM card from the tracking device into the phone, in hopes of finding more about the elusive Shoeman.
Using the website, whatismyip.com, Hill was able to successfully find the IP Address, which led back to Naperville, Illinois.
However, when he used another website, whatismyipaddress.com, the geolocation of the SIM card traced back to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and then again to Manhattan, New York, leading to speculation that the SIM card was encrypted in a way to restrict the address’s origin.
Hill was perplexed, unsure what to make of it, even as a tech-savvy person.
“Obviously any time you are using mobile data, you’re going to have a dynamic IP, but this is really weird,” Hill said, “I’m just confused why on the top left it says AT&T now when earlier it said T-Mobile. Regardless, the SIM card it’s totally functional in terms of cellular data, which means we got to plug in this thing and see what it was sending. So I ordered a USB to Serial converter, and it should be here tomorrow.”
While the audience waited with bated breath, Hill would not disappoint.
He came back quickly with another video, which showcased the new USB to Serial converter, and claimed to have “found something big.”
While he was unable to decipher the IP address to see who was monitoring him or where it was coming from, he found something in an error code in his attempts to gain access:
The phone number associated with the tracker itself.
And the next day, he called the number.
The call would go to voicemail, but still, a menacing yet hushed voice spoke sternly through the line.
“I know who you are. I know what you did” The Shoeman said, “If you have this number… I’m coming for you. The price must be paid.”
While Hill would laugh at the voicemail, finding it hilarious that the supposed Shoeman was “moaning over the phone,” and would respond with a voicemail of his own.
“No, I’m coming for you.” Hill said in between laughs, “I know who you are and what you did. And I’m gonna… pay that price.”
Hill called back the next day, but he was met with a very different voice on the other end.
The voicemail changed.
On the other end was a normal yet distorted voice, which the comments said either sounded Eastern European or Chinese, saying something to the effect of “I’ve been trying to contact you, I can’t see the number you called or texted.”
Hill would text the number, asking questions like “Who are you?” and “Why were you trying to track me?”
Eventually, after a few days, someone, possibly the Shoeman, texted Hill back.
“Sorry for the delay. Couldn’t get a signal for a few days. Look I’ve seen your videos. I know who you are. I know you think you know who I am but you’ve got it backwards. The tracker is mine. I was just trying to see where they went but he never put them on. I can’t say too much on here but I’m on your side. I don’t want you to do what I did. More on the way. DO NOT TRUST THE SHOEMAN.”
After days of no contact, no videos and even some of his audience thinking the Shoeman had taken him out, Hill would return, revealing he had received another text.
“Hey, sorry for the delay. Lost signal for a bit again. You’ll understand soon. More will be on the way. He doesn’t usually wait long to make the rules known. Clearly the effects have started to show already. Everything will be clear soon. DO NOT TRUST THE SHOEMAN.”
Hill, not believing he was truly talking with a fellow victim of the Shoeman, and on high alert that his shoes might be the next ones taken, responded simply with “Who tf are you?”
The phone number texted back:
“Lost service again. Well good friend if I told you my real name you likely may not believe me. The product worked well for me. But the name I entered when purchasing the boots was Donte. Sort of missed my submission allotment on tape but it was still approved. Im assuming he has told the rules by now. I have given too much information on this already. Goodbye and DO NOT TRUST THE SHOEMAN.”
This would be the last text from “Donte” that would ever be sent.
Chapter 5: A New Pair of Boots
The series reaches its climax with Hill, after everything he has experienced, receiving yet another pair of boots from the Shoeman.
But this time… he didn’t order them.
He cuts open the box on camera, where he finds a pair of damp boots made of dark brown leather, stuck to the serrated cellophane, leaving behind a faint crimson sheen.
In the next video, Hill is deep in the woods. His tone is different now — tired, anxious. He says he “might have to be done with the series.” After posting the last video, he claims to have had to “get on a flight pretty fast,” and now he’s only back to “try to make a video on what was in the package, just to give everyone some closure.”
But in that video, to give his audience the closure that they craved, he not only finds a tape inside the boot, but this time, he also finds a cell phone.
On this phone, there was only one number, with the letter “A” as the name, and when Hill dialed the number, his burner phone rang.
The same phone he was texting the entire time had called him.
Donte was never real.
It was the Shoeman all along.
“This is the number I’ve been texting this whole time, and this is the phone that’s been sending the messages.” Hill said, “Which is… why I think I gotta be done with this series.”
Chapter 6: The End?
The series would abruptly end, at least for now, in an eerie video, with Hill stating the following:
“I’ve been getting a lot of requests for updates on the dark web shoe situation. I’m really sorry, but right now, I don’t think I can post anything about it.”
“I don’t think I can really explain why I can’t post anything about it — I’m still waiting to hear back about that. It’s a good reason, and if you knew why, you’d understand, but for now, you’ll just have to trust me — I’ll post something as soon as I can.”
Since then, Hill has only posted once, an amateur wrestling promotion for his upcoming match.
Whether or not all of this was a carefully constructed ruse by an amateur wrestler to gain clout, money, or fame is up for debate.
But if you’re like me, and if you’ve read this long, you are probably fascinated by the possibility of the Shoeman being real, and the other cryptic mysteries the internet has in spades.
But either way, in this arena of the internet, where in the dark corners evil inhabits, we should all tread carefully.
And most importantly:
DO NOT TRUST THE SHOEMAN.
Sources:
- Shiloh Hill WWE (@thunder_keck) | TikTok
- What is the dark web? How to access it and what you’ll find | CSO Online
- Shiloh Hill’s First Video On the Shoeman | TikTok
- Shiloh Hill Buys the Waylon 29 Dark Web Boots | TikTok
- Waylon 29s Arrive | TikTok
- Shiloh HillTests Waylon 29s with Luminol | TikTok
- Shiloh Hill VCR Arrives | TikTok
- The Shoeman: Keeper of Soles — YouTube
- Shiloh Hill VHS Tape Reaction | TikTok
- Shiloh Hill Finds the Tracker | TikTok
- Shiloh Hill Tracker Reaction | TikTok
- Shoeman’s Website Taken Down | TikTok
- Exploring SIM Card from Dark Web Boots | TikTok
- Shiloh Hill USB Converter | TikTok
- Shoeman Voicemail | TikTok
- Shoeman’s vVoicemail Changes | TikTok
- The Shoeman Texts Back | TikTok
- Shoeman Texts Again | TikTok
- Exploring the Dark Web Through Texts (Shoeman Final Message) | TikTok
- Shiloh Hill Receives Another Pair of Boots| TikTok
- Shiloh Hill in the Woods | TikTok
- Shiloh Hill Finds a Cellphone in the Boots | TikTok
- Shiloh Hill’s Eerie Last Video | TikTok
- Shiloh Hill Amateur Wrestling Promotion | TikTok