A foot presence sensor system for an active article of footwear can include a sensor housing configured to be disposed at or in an insole of the article, and a controller circuit, disposed within the sensor housing, configured to trigger one or more automated functions of the footwear based on a foot presence indication. A capacitive sensor, such as disposed within or upon the sensor housing, can be configured to provide the foot presence indication. In an example, foot presence can be detected using time-varying characteristics of a signal from the capacitive sensor.