Foot Clan

The Foot Clan is a fictional ninjitsu clan that is usually led by The Shredder and as such they are the Ninja Turtles' and their friends main antagonists.

The Foot Clan consists of a multitude of faceless ninjas who exist to do battle with the heroic Turtles and although most individual Foot Ninja's tend to fall rather easily, they are anything if persistent and continually return to take more punishment.

The Foot was originally a parody of the criminal ninja clan The Hand in Marvel Comic's, Daredevil. In addition to the obvious similarity in their names, both are ninja clans that originate from feudal Japan, practice ninjitsu and black magic, that now run powerful international organized crime rings who are familiar with multiple illegal activities such as drug smuggling, arms running, and most certainly assassination.

The Foot Clan Symbol has been a left foot in most incarnations, except for the movies, the 4kids show, and the Nick series (where it's a right foot).

History
The Foot Clan was established in 512 A.D. in Japan by an extremely skilled samurai named Koga Takuza. For centuries, the Foot Clan battled the Hamato Clan and eventually met its end to the latter. Oroku Saki (the Shredder) was abandoned by the Foot Clan as an infant and taken in by Hamato Yuuta (Hamato Yoshi's father), the leader of the Hamato Clan at the time. Oroku grew up learning Ninjutsu and practicing it alongside Hamato, causing the two to view one another as brothers. However, this all changed when they both fell in love with a beautiful young woman named Tang Shen. When it became clear to Saki that Shen preferred Yoshi over him, he became envious and insulted Yoshi in front of Shen. To make matters worse, Saki discovered that he originally belonged to the Foot Clan and that Yoshi had kept it secret. In response to this, he challenged Yoshi to a fight to the death, and the two tore through Yoshi's residence, setting it on fire. Just when Saki was about to kill Yoshi, Shen interfered and took the fatal blow for herself. Facially wounded, Saki escaped and stole Hamato's daughter, Miwa, to mold her in his own image. Oroku rebuilt the Foot Clan under the title "the Shredder" by by turning the remaining Hamato ninjas to his side and raised Yoshi's daughter as a part of it, lying to her that Hamato took the life of her mother (Shen).

Eventually, the Shredder learned that Hamato, now going by "Splinter", is alive in New York City with ninjas of his own, so he and the Foot Clan traveled there from Tokyo, Japan to have their revenge. Ever since then, the Turtles have fought a number of Foot Clan warriors, ranging from humans to robots, and even though the Turtles are always victorious, the Shredder continues coming up with ways to put an end to them, their Master Splinter, and their two friends, April O'Neil and Casey Jones.

After weeks passed on since the Triceraton Invasion, Shredder and the Foot Clan have left New York when Shredder was badly injured by Splinter. They've abandoned their hideout (which was taken over by the New Foot Clan) and now in a condominium outside of City.