The industrial production of footwear to supply humans started less than 100 years ago. Currently, millions of humans in remote areas, and not so remote ones, still go barefoot. The first human show goes back a few hundred years ago, before the Christian era. Over millions of years, different Homos who preceded us in human history went barefoot.

Given this reality we are not surprised that our fellow chimps also enjoy the privilege of walking comfortably with a good pair of shoes. Something that has always caught our attention with our chimpanzees is the obsession they have for shoes in general, getting fascinated with the different models that exist and are displayed by people who visit us for professional reasons.

The obsession for shoes of the chimp gets to a point that sometimes we buy shoes to give them as toys, which are lead from one side to the other as a valuable gift. They already know those shoes do not fit their feet, because they tried to put them several times and realized they worked, in a different way, for us humans.

Chimpanzees, as intelligent beings, wish to have a good pair of shoes that will allow them to walk through any terrain without hurting their feet, or when it rains without getting wet, as they see us in these situations.

Considering this obsessive desire, we assumed the task of developing a different shoe for their feet. The foot of the chimpanzee is like a hand – explaining quickly. So we had to develop a prototype of a shoe that fits our hand. We chose Emilio, raised by us in the sanctuary since he was a child, and made a drawing of his foot. Then we sent it to a shoemaker in São Paulo. The first prototype is shown here in the photo album. We had already tested with him and five other chimpanzees with similar size feet. The closure is in velcro, which they already know and facilitates the operation of opening and closing. In a few days more the prototype will become the first model of shoes for chimpanzees, which is perhaps unprecedented in the world.

Due to the lack of shoes and aiming not to wet her feet, Sofia, a four-year old female baby, found an original solution, as the predecessors Homo sapiens: she involves her feet in fabric and walks well protected. The new generation of chimpanzees already seeks solutions to a problem of their species, which their parents never thought about. It is possible that they will be the chimpanzees evolved in the future who will use shoes created by us and asked for them to make their life and rides more pleasurable and comfortable.