What’s that in your shoe? It’s a phone charger!

Our bodies create and use a ton of energy, and it could be going to better places, like, uh, your Android phone! If Cinderella were to live in the 21st century, she probably wouldn’t be very happy to hear what we are going to tell you today. 24-year-old Anthony Mutua from Kenya has developed an ultra-thin chip of crystals that can charge mobile phones when placed in shoe soles and the technology is set to go into mass production soon enough.

The chip, once installed into a regular shoe, generates electricity when you step on it, and can be harvested in one of two ways. You can either charge a phone while in motion through a thin extension cable running from your shoe to your pocket, or, you can choose to store the electric energy and charge your phone after you have stopped walking or running, after taking your shoes off.

Either way, there’s no doubt that this is cool, and you’ probably want to start taking care of your shoes more if you choose to go for this innovative technology.

Mutua, the technology’s inventor, expects the crystals to go into mass production very soon, especially due to the fact that they can store energy, which could make them very popular for “people looking to charge phones as a commercial activity”. The Kenyan has failed to tell us if his crystals will be able to power any phone, “dumb” or smart, but has announced that the technology has the ability to charge several devices simultaneously. This is, of course, if you walk enough.