Angelo Casimiro: The Boy Who Turned Footsteps into Electricity

Have you ever wished your phone could charge itself just by walking around? What if your shoes could make enough electricity to power a flashlight during a storm? This might sound impossible, but in 2014, a 15-year-old student from the Philippines named Angelo Casimiro made it happen. Now, eleven years later, his incredible invention is inspiring people all over the world again.

Meet Angelo: The Kid Who Changed Everything

Angelo wasn't a genius scientist or the son of famous inventors. He was just a regular high school student living in the Philippines. However, Angelo lived in a place where powerful storms, known as typhoons, often knocked out the electricity for days or even weeks. During these blackouts, families couldn't charge their phones to call for help, kids couldn't do homework, and people had to sit in the dark.

Instead of just complaining about the problem, Angelo decided to take action. He designed his shoes not just as a gadget, but as a life tool for communities with unreliable electricity. His hard work paid off when he became a winner in his local area and made it to the regional finals of the 2014 Google Science Fair, one of the biggest science competitions for young people in the world.

How Do Shoes Make Electricity? The Cool Science Behind It

Angelo's invention may sound like magic, but it's actually based on real science that has been around for centuries. The secret is something called "piezoelectricity" (pronounced "pee-ay-zo"). This fancy word describes what happens when certain special materials make electricity when you squeeze, press, or bend them.

Think of it like this: imagine if every time you squeezed a stress ball, it could light up a small LED bulb. That's basically how piezoelectric materials work. When you squeeze, bend, or press these materials, they produce electricity.

Angelo took these special materials and put them inside the shoe insoles—the part of the shoe your foot rests on. Every time you take a step, your weight presses down on these materials, and they create a tiny amount of electricity. It's like having a mini power plant under your feet!

Here's how it works step by step:

1. You put on the special shoes with piezoelectric materials in the soles

2. When you walk, your foot presses down on the materials

3. The pressure creates electricity

4. The electricity gets stored in a small battery in the shoe

5. You can use that stored electricity to charge your phone or power a small light

What Could These Shoes Actually Do?

Angelo's prototype shoes were pretty impressive for something made by a teenager. His invention captures kinetic energy from each step and converts it into usable electricity, enough to power small devices like mobile phones or flashlights. While different reports give different numbers, most sources agree that walking for several hours could generate enough power to charge a phone or run a small LED light partially.

The coolest part? Angelo embedded the piezoelectric elements beneath cushioning materials, creating a device that feels like a regular shoe insole rather than a mechanical add-on. This means the shoes felt normal to wear, not like you had computers strapped to your feet.

Why Everyone's Talking About This Again in 2025

You might wonder: if Angelo invented these shoes in 2014, why is everyone talking about them now? Several things have happened that make his idea more important than ever:

Better Materials: The special piezoelectric materials are now much better than they were in 2014. Piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting is the preferred method for use with wearable devices since it is the most capable of producing the power level needed for small-scale devices. Scientists have figured out how to make them work better and last longer.

More Gadgets Need Power: Think about how many devices you carry now compared to 2014. Smartwatches, wireless earbuds, fitness trackers—all these gadgets need power, and people are always looking for new ways to charge them.

Climate Change Worries: People are more concerned about the environment now and want to find ways to make electricity without hurting the planet. Angelo's shoes make clean energy from something you already do every day—walk!

Emergency Preparedness: Recent disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and power grid failures have reminded people how important it is to have backup ways to charge essential devices.

What Scientists Are Working on Now

The scientific community has gotten really excited about Angelo's idea. Advances in piezoelectric technology have enabled the development of piezoelectric-based footwear for energy harvesting from walking and running. Today's researchers are working on shoes that are even better than Angelo's original design.

Modern scientists are combining piezoelectric materials with other types of energy-making technologies. Some new designs can capture energy not just from walking up and down, but also from the side-to-side motion of your feet, the heat from your body, and even the friction of your clothes rubbing together.

Over the last couple of decades, numerous piezoelectric footwear energy harvesters (PFEHs) have been reported in the literature. This means lots of scientists have been working on similar ideas, building on Angelo's original concept.

Cool Ways People Want to Use These Shoes

The ways people want to use electricity-generating shoes have grown way beyond Angelo's original idea of emergency power:

Health Monitoring: Imagine shoes that can tell if you're walking normally or if you might fall down. They could send alerts to your family or doctor if something seems wrong, and they'd power themselves while doing it.

Military and Emergency Workers: Soldiers and firefighters who work in remote places could charge their important communication devices without needing to find electrical outlets.

Helping Developing Countries: In places where there isn't reliable electricity, these shoes could provide power for LED lights, radios, and cell phones.

Smart Cities: Cities could put piezoelectric materials in sidewalks and public spaces. All the people walking around would generate electricity to power street lights and traffic sensors.

The Problems That Still Need Solving

Even though the technology has improved a lot since 2014, electricity-generating shoes still face some challenges:

Limited Power: While the shoes can generate enough electricity for small devices, they still can't make as much power as plugging into a wall outlet. A full day of walking might only give you enough power to use your phone for a few minutes.

Durability: Shoes get wet, dirty, and beaten up. The electronic parts inside need to be tough enough to handle all of this without breaking.

Cost: Making shoes with special materials and electronics is expensive, much more expensive than regular shoes.

Comfort: Adding batteries and electronic parts to shoes makes them heavier and can make them less comfortable to wear all day.

Angelo's Success Story Continues

Angelo's invention wasn't just a one-time success. Now at 22 years old, Angelo has over a hundred science and engineering achievements, showing how his early innovation launched him into a successful career in science and engineering.

His story proves that you don't have to be an adult or have fancy equipment to solve real problems. Sometimes the best solutions come from young people who see problems differently than adults do.

What This Means for the Future

As we continue into 2025, the idea of generating electricity from everyday activities is becoming increasingly popular. Scientists and engineers are working on all sorts of ways to capture energy from things we already do:

Smart Clothing: Fabrics that can make electricity from your body movements, not just your feet.

Wireless Power Sharing: Shoes that could wirelessly send power to your phone or even share power with your friends.

AI-Smart Energy: Computer systems that learn from how you move to make the most electricity possible.

Community Power: Groups of people wearing energy-making devices could work together to power things like community centers or emergency shelters.

Why Angelo's Story Matters

Angelo Casimiro's teenage invention teaches us something important: the best innovations often come from people who experience problems firsthand and refuse to accept that "that's just how things are." Living in a country frequently hit by typhoons and power outages, Angelo witnessed firsthand how communities struggled without reliable electricity.

When Angelo was just 15, he saw his neighbors struggling in the dark during power outages and thought, "There has to be a better way." He didn't wait for adults to fix the problem—he got to work and created his own solution.

The fact that people are still talking about and improving on his idea eleven years later shows that good solutions have staying power. Sometimes, the most powerful innovations come from asking simple questions like "What if we could do this differently?"

The Big Picture

In our world today, where climate change is a real concern and people need reliable access to electricity, Angelo's invention represents hope. It shows us that we can find ways to make clean energy from activities we already do every day.

Whether you're inspired to become an inventor yourself or you're just amazed by what one teenager accomplished, Angelo's story reminds us that innovation can come from anywhere. All it takes is recognizing a problem, imagining a solution, and having the courage to try something new.

Who knows? Maybe the next world-changing invention will come from someone in your own school. The teenager who wanted to keep the lights on during storms ended up lighting the way to a more energy-independent future, one step at a time.

Sources:

• GMA Network: "Pinoy teen invents electricity-generating shoes" (2014)

• Prince EA: "15-year-old Filipino student invented electricity-generating shoes" (2025)

• Seasia.co: "15-year-old Filipino teenager creates shoes that charge your phone while walking" (2024)

• The ASEAN Magazine: "Angelo Casimiro" (2024)

• Inhabitat: "15-Year-Old Invents Clever In-Sole Generator" (2014)

• IFL Science: "Teenager Invents Energy-Generating Shoe Insoles" (2019)

• Spirit Science: "15-Year-Old Filipino Student Invented Electricity-Generating Shoes" (2024)

• ScienceDirect: "Footwear for piezoelectric energy harvesting: A comprehensive review"

• MDPI Sensors: "A Review of Piezoelectric Footwear Energy Harvesters"

• IEC e-tech: "Finding the energy for wearable tech" (2025)