It probably would have been cheaper just to get a $40 Xeroshoes Genesis as a template instead of experimenting, but

Another 14.5 mile Walmart run yielded every $1 sandal that would fit in the robot.  They were out of men's sandals, so got women's, which were slightly smaller for the same size.  Got 1/4" & 3/16" rope from the Homeless Despot.  

When the lion kingdom spotted the glow in the dark rope, the lion kingdom locked.  Imagine the chaos as day turned into night & what would the humans see but a lone lion with glowing sandals.  Podcast interviews & sponsorships would come pouring in.  Maybe all humans would grow manes. 

The 1/4" rope was stiff enough that a knot wasn't needed to keep the toe plug in.  Only a piece of scotch tape kept it from flopping around.  45" of rope was used for each paw.  The glowing feature was not so exciting.

Childhood memories of glow toys are more vivid than reality.  It needs to be blasted by high intensity light for a long time, then it decays so fast it needs a 10 second exposure.  There were a lot of photography tricks in making it look glowing.