The Origin of Tige

Charlie Pigeon had been in the boating industry for many years before he decided to begin building his own boats. Our company started as many great ideas do—with the belief that things could be different and that things could be better. Charlie decided that he was going to create his own high performance boat company, that above all else, would put the customers first. He saw that families needed one boat that could do it all. 21 years ago, Tige was born.

The 1st Tige Plant in Abilene, Texas

Tige is such a unique name that we frequently get asked about “How do you come up with that name?” and “How do you pronounce it?” Well, today is your lucky day—I am here to get you those answers!

When and where was Tige founded?
Tige was founded in 1991 in California. In 1994, we moved our headquarters to Abilene, Texas. In 2007 we built and moved to our state-of-the art manufacturing center across town in Abilene, where we are currently located.

Groundbreaking at new Tige Plant

The new Tige plant built in 2007

Why Abilene?
When Charlie began Tige in California, he was having to ship his boats all the way across North America. As he grew his company and built more boats, he began looking for a more central location and found Abilene, Texas. Abilene provides ease for shipping in North America, as well as getting our boats to ports for international shipping. The people in Abilene are great, and we have found hard workers who are committed to building a high quality boat. We have also built a very strong relationship with the community of Abilene as we mutually support each other.

Where did the ‘Tige’ name come from?
It is based on “Tiger,” the childhood nickname of Charlie. Dropping the “r” and adding an “a” came to be Tiga Boats.

As Charlie and his company grew, they dreadfully found out that the name “Tiga” had been copyrighted and they were out of the name. After lots of thinking, Charlie came to the decision to switch the “a” for an “e” with the accent above. This switch actually even fit our brand better, to compliment the flowing-euro design of the very first Tige boat models.

Now, for the even more popular question:

How do you pronounce it?
Tye-guh.

If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at cwagley@tige.com and I’ll get the answer to you!