In 1993, Michael Jackson, along with Michael L. Bush and Dennis Tompkins, filed for a patent on the “anti-gravity” shoes they invented. These special shoes had a triangular groove in the heels that caught onto a bolt sticking out of the stage floor which allowed Jackson and his dancers to lean forward beyond the center of gravity. The King of Pop used this gravity defying illusion to wow audiences in live performances of the song “Smooth Criminal.”

via Retronaut