The focus of this review is to outline the remarkable ability of the gecko to climb surfaces vertically, at tremendous speed (over 1 m/s) using van der Waals forces (one of nature’s amazing “sticking and unsticking” directional dry adhesion design) as well as contact splitting mechanism. Further, the elasticity of the hairs conforming to the topology of the surface and hence contributing to an increased adhesion force is discussed, apart from the applications of gecko feet bio-inspired solutions. Such applications are in areas as diverse as, and not restricted to, climbing vertically and horizontally on glass surfaces; fitting televisions and computers on the walls; in robots for the inspection and maintenance of installations in space stations and self-cleaning surfaces. By this review, we hope to inspire and motivate the current generation of engineers to study, mimic and abstract the fundamental hierarchical structures as well as the incredible dry adhesion principles (as closely as is possible) objects of nature. This approach will help in improving upon the existing methods to produce gecko feet-like materials with dry adhesion as well as self-cleaning properties. Such refinement strategies can also include the development of hybrid structures utilizing a combination of designs found in other organisms in Mother Nature (for e.g., the mushroom-shaped structure found in the beetle). This requires improvements in the fundamental hierarchical arrangement of the gecko feet-like hairs and their inter-facial interactions with model substrata. Also, the mechanical deformations of the different gecko feet-like materials as well as how sliding velocity impacted adhesional and frictional phenomena should be studied and better understood. This will enable the engineer to develop better gecko feet-like adhesives.