It is 6 pm on a Friday. A friend messages: "Court booked for 8, are you in?" You are in. Then the second thought lands: your only sports shoes have dark rubber soles, and the venue will not let you on the court in them.
So you run the usual options. Rent a pair at the counter and hope for the best? Buy a pair you will wear a handful of times a month? Or lug a second pair of shoes to the office, every single day, just in case?
For a casual player, none of these feels quite right. This post looks at each one honestly, ncluding the hygiene question people hesitate to say out loud, and then at a fourth route that has appeared for exactly this situation: converting the shoe you are already wearing.
- Venues really do require non-marking soles. Rules at Indian courts are strict [6][8][9][12], so "just wear what I have" is usually not an option.
- Rental shoes are not automatically unsafe, but you cannot easily verify them. One study found no fungus on rental shoes from clubs that disinfected properly [1], and the same
literature shows foot fungus is common and spreads through shared items and spaces [3].
- Buying new is fair value only if you play often enough. For a casual player the money roughly breaks even with renting over about two years (worked example below).
- The hidden cost is carrying and planning. A second pair of shoes costs bag space, effort and spontaneity, which is why a lot of casual games simply do not happen.
- A convertible option such as SoleD removes the rental and carrying problems by turning your own everyday shoe non-marking, with trade-offs covered honestly below.
Why you cannot just wear your sneakers
Non-marking soles use soft or gum-like rubber that does not leave dark scuffs on indoor floors [10]. Indian venues are consistent about requiring them: a Noida indoor stadium lists non-marking shoes as mandatory for badminton [8], and listings for Guwahati and Bengaluru venues say the same [6][7]. One footwear retailer goes as far as saying almost every indoor badminton court in India enforces the rule, on wooden, PVC and school-hall floors alike [12]. (That is a retailer's claim, so read it as a strong indication rather than a survey result.)
There is also a performance angle. Court shoes are built for grip and side-to-side movement [11], which is what you want when you are lunging for a drop shot on a polished floor. So the shoe question is partly about rules and partly about safety.
Option 1: Buy a new pair
The case for buying is simple: a clean, fitted pair that is always yours, with the grip and lateral support court shoes are designed for [11].
The case against, for a casual player, is usage. If you play twice a month, a pair spends most of its life in a cupboard, and (as our earlier post argued for kids) you are paying for a good deal of storage and waiting. Do the maths: buy versus rent The figures below are my assumptions to show the method. Your venue's rental fee and your
shoe price will differ, so please swap in your own.
- You play twice a month, about 24 sessions a year.
- A decent non-marking pair costs ₹3,000 and lasts about two years for that usage, so about 48 sessions: ₹3,000 ÷ 48 ≈ ₹63 per session.
- Renting at an assumed ₹60 per session over the same 48 sessions costs ₹2,880, so buying and renting are close to break-even at roughly the two-year mark.
The takeaway is that for a casual player, money is rarely the deciding factor. The deciding factors are hygiene, convenience and how often your plans are spontaneous. Any
alternative, SoleD included, should be compared against the ₹63 and ₹60 benchmarks above, plus whatever it saves you in carrying effort.
Option 2: Rent a used pair at the venue
Many venues do rent shoes. A Bengaluru arena lists rackets and shoes on rent [6], and a J P Nagar academy does the same [7]. For a first-time or occasional player, this is the
lowest-commitment way to get on court. The worry is the one most people feel and few discuss: whose feet were in these before mine? What the evidence says about rental shoe hygiene, The honest answer is reassuring in part and cautionary in part.
- Reassuring: Researchers sampled 103 pairs of rental climbing shoes and 102 pairs of rental bowling shoes across eight clubs, and found no dermatophytes (the fungi behind athlete's foot) on any of them. All the bowling clubs, and one of the climbing clubs, used fungicidal disinfection [1].
- But with caveats: The authors themselves note that the sample may favour clubs with high disinfection standards, that season could matter, and that detecting fungus on footwear is not a perfect method [1]. In other words, the result says well-maintained rental shoes can be fine, not that all rental shoes are.
- Foot fungus is common and sticky: A recent review notes that athlete's foot and toenail fungus are common and frequently come back, with reinfection often traced to contaminated personal items and shared environments [3].
- Disinfection has to be the right kind: A climbing-industry journal advises combining antibacterial and antifungal products for rental shoes, since neglected or improperly treated
pairs can spread fungal infections [4].
- Disinfection also wears shoes out: A US patent filing about bowling overshoes describes how operators spray rental shoes with antibacterial aerosol between users, and that this
repeated treatment makes rentals deteriorate faster [5]. Heavily rented shoes tend to be tired shoes.
How Indian venues handle it: two venues I found require socks to be worn with rented shoes and prohibit barefoot play [6][7]. That is a sensible minimum, but listings do not say how often or with what the shoes are disinfected, so you would need to ask. If you rent, a practical checklist (my suggestions, not medical advice):
- Wear clean, full-length socks, never barefoot, and wash them after.
- Ask the counter how and how often the shoes are disinfected, and whether the product is antifungal.
- Skip rental shoes if you have cuts, blisters or an existing foot skin condition.
- Check the pair for dampness, odour or collapsed insoles, and ask for another if in doubt.
- Change out of them promptly and dry your feet well. Persistent itching, peeling or odour afterwards is a reason to see a doctor or pharmacist.
There is a hidden flip side. Your own shoes are not automatically hygienic either. A crossover study on basketball players' shoes found that a dedicated sanitising technique significantly reduced bacteria in them [2], which is a reminder that any shoe you wear, yours or borrowed, benefits from care.
Option 3: Carry a spare pair everywhere
This is the most hygienic of the traditional options, since the shoes are yours, and it is the one that fails the most casual players. Consider what it really involves:
- A second pair of shoes in your bag, every day, whether or not a game happens.
- Extra weight and bulk on a commute, in a metro, or on a two-wheeler.
- A real chance of leaving them at home on the one day a game does come up.
- A bag that smells like last night's session, if you do not air it out.
Many casual players quietly stop bothering. The shoes stay at home, the invitation comes at 6 pm, and the game does not happen, or it happens in the wrong shoes. That is the real cost of this option: not the shoe, but the games that never get played.
Option 4: Convert the shoe you are already wearing
A newer idea is to avoid the second pair altogether. Rather than renting a stranger's shoe or carrying your own spare, you wear your regular everyday shoe and make it court-ready on the spot. SoleD is built for this. As SoleD describes it, it converts a regular, daily-wear, comfortable shoe into a non-marking one instantly, without damaging the original
shoe. It is light in weight and fits any shoe, which makes it easy to keep with you and ready for sudden plans, so no chance to play, socialise and connect goes begging.
The idea has an interesting precedent. Bowling alleys have long served casual customers through rental shoes [5], and inventors have proposed overshoes worn over ordinary shoes as an alternative, precisely because of the hygiene and wear problems of rentals [5]. SoleD applies a similar logic to the court.
How it answers each worry
- Hygiene: you wear your own shoe and your own socks, so there is no shared footwear in the picture.
- Carrying: a lightweight attachment is far easier to keep in a laptop bag or gym bag than a second full pair of shoes.
- Spontaneity: if it lives in your bag, a last-minute invitation becomes a yes instead of a "next time".
- Cost and storage: you are not buying or storing a whole extra pair of shoes. Compare its price against the ₹63 and ₹60 benchmarks above.
Being realistic about where it fits A conversion product is aimed at the casual player, and that is where it makes the most sense. Dedicated court shoes are engineered with lateral support and cushioning for hard, repeated movement [11], and a player who trains several times a week, competes, or has foot or ankle concerns may still be better served by a proper pair. It is also wise to confirm with your venue that it accepts the product, and to test your grip and footing in a relaxed game before a competitive one.
Case studies: what real venues and research show. These are documented examples rather than invented stories. Illustrative family-style scenarios follow in the next section and are labelled as such.
Case study 1: Rental shoes under the microscope (Danish study)
Researchers tested rental shoes from four climbing clubs and four bowling clubs, 205 pairs in all, and detected no athlete's-foot fungi [1]. The takeaway is nuanced: where clubs used fungicidal disinfection, the shoes tested clean, but the authors caution that the sample may have leaned towards well-run clubs and that screening should continue [1]. Lesson for players: the venue's hygiene routine is the variable that matters, so ask about it.
Case study 2: The bowling alley rental model. Bowling alleys are the classic example of a sport serving casual customers through rented shoes. A patent filing describes how occasional bowlers depend on those rentals, how operators sanitise between uses with antibacterial spray, and how that treatment shortens the shoes' lives. It also records that overshoe designs were proposed as an alternative, yet alleys kept their rental stock [5]. Lesson: rental works at scale, but it carries hygiene and wear costs, and users
have long looked for alternatives.
Case study 3: How Indian venues manage rental shoes. An arena in Bengaluru requires non-marking shoes, prohibits barefoot play, makes socks compulsory for rented shoes, and offers rackets and shoes for rent [6]. A J P Nagar academy lists the same socks rule [7]. A Noida indoor stadium simply makes non-marking shoes mandatory and quotes court prices from ₹354 an hour for wooden courts, with GST extra [8].
Lesson: the venue norms are clear about what you must wear, but they say little about how shared shoes are cleaned.
Case study 4: Sanitising your own shoes works too. A crossover study with 27 male basketball players and 4 coaches (62 shoes) tested a sanitising technique for the inside of shoes, and found it significantly reduced bacteria in them [2].
Lesson: hygiene is not only a rental problem. Your own sports shoes, and any shoe you convert for the court, deserve regular care.
A simple way to decide
How often you play A sensible starting point (my suggestion).
First time or once in a while Rent, using the checklist above, or try a convertible option.
Two to four times a month, plans often last-minute. A convertible option you keep in your bag, or one dedicated pair if you are happy to carry it.
Weekly or more, or competitive A dedicated court shoe that fits well, with a convertible option as backup.
- Check the venue first: do they allow rentals, and what do they accept as non-marking?
- Ask about hygiene: how are rental shoes disinfected, and how often?
- Compare real costs: your actual rental fee, shoe price, and any alternative's price.
- Count the carrying effort: if you will not carry a spare, plan around that honestly.
The bottom line
Casual players are not being fussy when they hesitate over renting or carrying shoes. The rental hygiene concern is real, even if well-run venues manage it well [1][4], and the carrying burden is real too. The right answer depends on how often you play and how last-minute your plans tend to be. For many casual players, being able to say yes to a sudden game in the shoes they already have on is exactly the point.
The shoes are the small part. The game, the friends and the evening out are what you are really protecting.
References
[1] Rental shoes are not a source of tinea pedis. Danish Medical Journal (Ugeskrift for Laeger).
https://ugeskriftet.dk/dmj/rental-shoes-are-not-source-tinea-pedis
[2] Is it Possible to Sanitize Athletes' Shoes? Crossover study, University of Siena repository.
https://usiena-air.unisi.it/handle/11365/735450
[3] Review of disinfection and sanitisation strategies for recurrent fungal foot infections. PubMed Central.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12383997/
[4] Climbing Business Journal, "Rental Shoe Love." https://climbingbusinessjournal.com/rental-shoe-love/
[5] US patent filing, "Bowling overshoe" (describes rental shoe sanitising and overshoe alternatives).
https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/6405459
[6] iSports Arena, Bengaluru, venue listing on PlaySport (rules on non-marking shoes, socks for rentals,
shoe rental). https://playsport.com/isportsarena_ag_4f3edb4f
[7] Prakash Badminton Academy, J P Nagar, Bengaluru, listing on Lyfskills.
https://discover.lyfskills.com/listing/298
[8] Noida Indoor Stadium (Rackonnect), venue rules and pricing. https://rackonnect.com/?p=9705
[9] Asian Footwears, "Non-Marking Badminton Shoes in India."
https://www.asianfootwears.com/blog/non-marking-badminton-shoes-in-india-by-asian-footwears
[10] Metro Shoes, "Non marking shoes vs marking shoes."
https://www.metroshoes.com/blogs/non-marking-shoes-vs-marking-shoes
[11] Rackonnect, "Non-Marking Shoes vs. Regular Shoes: Why the Difference Matters."
https://rackonnect.com/?p=13701
[12] Vector X, badminton shoes collection (retailer statement on Indian court policies).
https://www.vector-x.com/collections/badminton-shoes
[13] Our earlier post: "Will They Stick With It? A Parent's Guide to Buying Non-Marking Shoes for a
Beginner." (Add your published link here.)
Notes on the sources
- No independent source on SoleD was found. All SoleD statements in this post are the brand's
own claims as supplied for this draft, and are worded accordingly.
- This post is brand content. If it is published by or for SoleD, say so plainly near the top,
which readers and advertising rules in many places expect.
- Health points are general information, not medical advice. For skin, nail or foot problems,
see a doctor or pharmacist.
- The buy-versus-rent maths uses assumed prices. Replace them with your own numbers.
