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| - The late Michael Jackson was known for his choreographic ability to seemingly defy gravity — a skill often attributed to the music legend's astronomical footwear.
A part of the King of Pop's legacy holds that the musician once filed a patent for "anti-gravity illusion shoes" that were used in the music video for his song "Smooth Criminal." It's a claim reported by publications such as The Atlantic, NPR and Time and shared on social media platforms including Reddit (archived), Instagram (archived) and TikTok (archived).
On June 6, 1992, Triumph International filed patent number US5255452A (also available here and here) under the names Michael J. Jackson, Michael L. Bush and Dennis Tompkins. Titled "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion," the patent abstract read:
A system for allowing a shoe wearer to lean forwardly beyond his center of gravity by virtue of wearing a specially designed pair of shoes which will engage with a hitch member movably projectable through a stage surface. The shoes have a specially designed heel slot which can be detachably engaged with the hitch member by simply sliding the shoe wearer's foot forward, thereby engaging with the hitch member.
The "anti-gravity illusion effects" were for "entertainment purposes" only, and the patent described a specialized footwear that essentially allowed its wearer to clip into various points on a specially equipped stage. In essence, the shoes served as an anchor and allowed their wearer to lean forward "at a very acute angle relative to the stage floor to achieve the illusion of defying gravity."
The patent filers went on to describe previous mechanisms for how Jackson previously achieved his on-stage anti-gravity effect in recorded performances. This effect was "accomplished by the use of cables connecting a harness around the dancer's waist with hooks on a stage, thereby allowing the dancer to lean forward at the required degree."
These techniques required stagehands to connect and disconnect cables, rendering the system unusable during live performances.
Included in the patent were drawings of the invention showing different perspectives of the shoes with the fastening straps open and closed (figures 1, 2 and 3) and another as if the user was wearing socks to cover the straps (figures 4 and 5).
Additional drawings show the shoes in use, including a side perspective of a dancer wearing the shoes and "leaning forward beyond his center of gravity (Figure 6) and "optimum spacing of the pair of hitches relative to the shoulders of the performing artist (Figure 14).
(Google Patents)
The bottom perspective of the heel of the shoe is also shown in great detail (below left) as is the "hitch carrying plate" and "stage engagement mechanism" to which it is secured (below right).
(Google Patents)
The National Archives Store sells a "Michael Jackson's Anti-Gravity Patent Magnet Set" online.
Jackson has been at the center of many Snopes fact checks, including whether the singer owned the rights to all the Beatles songs and whether he was the biological father of Bruno Mars.
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