The bulky shoes looked like they belonged to the loveable TV character Herman Munster or some other sci-fi monster. They were candy-apple red, a pair of thick metal shoes with round toes, white cloth straps, and springs attached to a platform base.

They looked very painful and very unsafe, and I could not imagine how anyone could walk or hop in them. I came across them during a preview at an auction house recently. I assumed that they were a child’s plaything from some years ago – I couldn’t imagine them being made for adults – and they just got lost in time. The springs and platform were caked in dust that had settled in for the long haul.

I had never seen anything like them before so I was obviously curious about what they were used for. So I Googled to find the identity of an item without a name to aid in the search. Finally, I came across several similar shoes – some with open toes – and found a name: satellite jumping shoes.

The shoes – which were worn over regular shoes, not in bare feet – were apparently popular in the 1950s and 1960s. They were considered anti-gravity shoes that were supposed to give wearers the feeling of walking on the moon. The shoes were made during the space race between the United States and Russia, which launched the first unmanned satellite, Sputnik I, in 1957. A year later, the United States blasted Explorer I into orbit, and the race was on. Russia put the first man and woman in space in the early 1960s, but in 1969, the United States sped ahead when it put the first astronauts on the moon.

The jumping shoes may have been around earlier than the 1950s, though. One site had a collection with shoes that were said to date back to around the 1920s.

The shoes were described as small trampolines for the feet when plastic versions – called moon shoes – were made in the late 1980s after being featured in Nickelodeon’s TV show “Double Dare.” The shoes were said to help “build muscles, develop coordination and balance.” Old or new, the shoes don’t appear to be very safe (elbow pads, knee pads, helmet and floor mat, please).

The Brooklyn Museum in New York even has a (clean) pair in its collection, made by Rapaport Brothers of Chicago in 1955. The shoes are part of a current exhibit at the museum (through Feb. 15, 2015) and are featured in its catalog “Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe.”

Several companies apparently made the shoes, including Moon Manufacturing Co. with its plastic Rocket Shoes with metal springs.

Even Michael Jackson had his own anti-gravity shoes, which he helped create for the on-the-road performances of his single “Smooth Criminal.” The song debuted in a video in 1988 that showed Jackson defying gravity (with the use of strings). He wanted the same effect in live performances, and came up with a shoe that simulated it. Hooked onto a bolt on the floor, the shoes allowed him and his dancers to lean forward at a 45-degree angle without falling on their faces.

Did you have a pair of satellite jumping shoes or remember them? Please share your story in the Comments box below.