4 ms·
How are you handling bowling shoe rental?
by Polizeiposaune 3mo ago
How are you handling bowling shoe rental?
- ErrantX 3mo agoNowhere near the OP (UK) but I've noticed a lot of fun-only lanes arent bothering to rent shoes and just let you wear whatever you have.
- semi-extrinsic 3mo agoNever understood the need to wear extremely uncomfortable and ill-fitting shoes just to throw a ball. Always seemed like a way to jack the price up. Sure, professional bowlers use specialised shoes. Professional footballers and professional runners and cyclists and golfers and tennis players and skateboarders and ... do as well. But if you do any one of these activities at a low enough frequency and/or level that you're not buying your own specialised shoes, whatever sneakers you have will do just fine.
- Projectiboga 3mo agoReinforced toes? That might be a reason.
- KennyBlanken 3mo agoIn the US they're just slippery enough to keep you from wrenching your ankle, the bowling lane knows they will have clean soles, and the soles won't damage the floor.
- mixmastamyk 3mo agoHmm, thought they needed to slide. Like formal dance shoes, the opposite of sneakers.
- tmh88j 3mo agoMostly to prevent damage and minimize maintenance + cleanup. Dirty shoes can mess with the oiling and rocks lodged in soles can gouge the floor.
- abanana 3mo agoIt's because the way the sole slides is an integral part of bowling the ball. You can't play "properly" without a proper sliding bowling shoe. I was a little surprised when the local bowling centres stopped bothering to make everyone use the proper shoes. I get what you're saying about playing casually, but when I last went bowling with colleagues, and won comfortably, and others were asking for tips because they just can't roll the ball properly, but won't try proper shoes, they tried to wind me up by telling me I was "cheating" by using the proper shoes that are offered for anyone who wants one - I can't win :)
- semi-extrinsic 3mo agoAppreciate the good answer. Out of curiosity, ofder of magnitude how much would a person need to be bowling to get good enough that choice of shoe matters?
- bluGill 3mo agoSocks with no shoes are good enough for amateurs. Maybe even better than the worst bowling shoes. I'm not sure where the level of shoes matters is crossed, but socks gets that a lot farther than street shoes.
- somenameforme 3mo agoIf you mean bowling shoe vs non-bowling shoe (as opposed to exact brand/type of bowling shoe), then they matter a lot even for a complete beginner. In a normal throw you're going to have a bit of momentum moving up to the lane and then release. You need to slide on your feet when you do this. In this [1] video go frame by frame at 12 seconds (or any time he bowls), you'll see his left foot in particular slide several inches during his throw. It's more subtle, but there's also a significant slide with his right foot as it goes across. If you did this in tennis shoes, or any shoe with proper soles, the friction would cause your feet to stick and it'd be simply impossible. Socks would be much better than normal shoes, but then you have the opposite problem of too little friction and it's difficult to maintain control. Bowling shoes aren't like running or something where a pro runner is going to have some absurdly expensive pro shoe that improves his time by a fraction of a percent. They're much closer to something like ice skates for ice skating. And yeah that's a pro with perfect perform, but even a beginner who's not just walking up to the lane, stopping, and throwing, is going to have to deal with sliding. It's just part of the game. [1] - https://youtu.be/_qh4yOwCgOg?t=12 https://youtu.be/_qh4yOwCgOg?t=12
- tjoff 3mo agoIsn't that included in the lane price? Always has been for me.
- bee_rider 3mo agoI think they mean the physical process of handling the shoes. At most places you rent your land and get your shoes at the same counter, basically in one transaction, which seems difficult to handle with a kiosk.
- section33 3mo agoTotally - we've got notifications wired in though, so our counter instantly knows "lane so and so needs such and such shoe sizes"
- KennyBlanken 3mo agoYou're removing human interaction, though. Nerds seem to forget that entertainment venues and sports are social spaces, interaction with staff matters, and is one of the more distinguishing features of a venue. Unless you've got someone walking up and down the lanes introducing themselves as the manager/owner/whatever...
- Johnny555 3mo agoIf I go out bowling with friends, I'm there to socialize with my friends. If I rent the lane from a Kiosk, I'm fine with that being the end of the transaction I don't need the manager to come introduce himself.
- bluGill 3mo agoMost people don't know that the real money is food and alcohol. Buy pizza and drinks for everyone and they should throw the lane in for free.
- tclancy 3mo agoHow did you read everything OP posted and come to that conclusion?
- section33 3mo agoWe just charge a flat rate with shoes included. We do $5 / person or $25 for a whole hour for larger groups. Wanted to take some of the advanced calculus out of the price of bowling, yknow?
- tclancy 3mo agoWhat is wrong with you, you’re going to ruin capitalism not caring about maximizing profits.
- Crunchified 3mo agoIn capitalism, any intentional non-maximization of profits is philanthropy. Nothing wrong with that.
- Neekerer 3mo agospare me your humanitarian sarcasm
- section33 3mo agoI did a capitalism, but I messed it all up!
- mypalmike 3mo agoMy local bowling alley charges $130 for shoes and 1 hour of bowling for 4 people off-peak. That scales up to $220 peak rates (e.g. Saturday night). It’s in the middle of a major city so it’s a different market of course, but the pricing difference is striking. No pun intended.
- Barbing 3mo agoLucky Strike across from San Francisco’s baseball stadium prices like that, ouch.