I bought the ASICS Gel-Dedicate 9 in March 2026, about a year and a half after I took up pickleball. Before that I played in the same running shoes I wore everywhere else. Nobody at open play said a word about it, and I would not have listened if they had, because those running shoes felt fine. They felt fine right up until the morning I came home from the park and sat on the garage step for a minute before I went inside.
I am 64 now, retired out of my own electrical shop after 28 years, and I play four or five weekday mornings at the town park from April into November, plus Saturday doubles with my wife Carol. I am not a coach and I am not a physical therapist, and nothing here is medical advice. Anything going on in your knees or ankles is a conversation for your doctor, not for a retired electrician with a keyboard. What I can tell you is what I noticed about my own feet, in the order I noticed it.
The shoes that live in the truck, not the garage
ASICS Gel-Dedicate 9. Lace-up closure, rubber sole, foam insole, moderate cushioning on the listing. I have played in mine since March 2026 and I stopped wearing them anywhere else on purpose.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →A rubber sole grips a hard court instead of skating across it
My running shoes had a soft, lugged bottom built to land on a heel and roll forward down a sidewalk. A pickleball court is a hard painted surface over asphalt, and my game is not a straight line. The listing for the ASICS pair lists a rubber sole, and on the court that is a shoe that holds when I push off sideways instead of a shoe that gives a little. I noticed it inside the first ten minutes. It felt more planted to me, and I quit thinking about my feet.
Side to side steps stopped feeling like a coin flip
Pickleball is a short-step, side-to-side game and I do not have the ankles I had at 40. In the running shoes a hard lateral push felt like the shoe wanted to keep traveling in the old direction. The ASICS pair has less of that give for me. I am not going to tell you it fixed anything, because I am not qualified to. I will tell you I stopped bracing before I moved, and bracing was costing me half a step on balls I should have reached.
The lace-up holds my midfoot exactly where I set it
I have a wide foot and I am fussy about laces. The closure here is a standard lace-up, and the part that matters is that once I tie them at 7:50 in the morning they are still where I put them at 10:30. I lace a little tighter across the top of the foot than I do at the ankle. If you like a loose, sloppy shoe this is not that shoe. If you want the same fit every morning without re-tying at the bench, it is.
Moderate foam cushioning is enough for a two hour morning
The listing describes the insole cushioning as foam and the cushioning level as moderate, and that word is doing real work. This is not a soft shoe. My running shoes were softer and that softness is part of why they felt wrong on a hard surface. The ASICS pair gives a little under the ball of my foot and not much else. After two and a half hours of open play my feet are tired in the ordinary way, the way they are after a morning on a ladder.
A closed toe keeps small mistakes small
I play with people who crowd the kitchen line, myself included, and I have taken a ball off the top of the foot more than once. The listing lists a closed toe, which is what you want on a court. Mine does not let my foot slide forward into the front of the shoe when I put the brakes on. I want that. My old running shoes had a taller, softer toe box that I could feel move on a hard stop.
At 2.2 pounds on the listing, they are not why I am tired
The product listing puts the weight at 2.2 pounds. I did not weigh them on the kitchen scale, though I own a scale good enough to do it. What I can tell you is that I carry the bag from the truck to the courts with a paddle, a loose dozen balls and a water bottle in it, and at the end of the morning my feet are not the part of me that complains. For a player my age that is most of the point of a shoe.
Court-only use keeps the sole clean and the grip honest
The first week I owned the ASICS pair I wore them out to the mailbox through wet grass. The listing says they are not water resistant, and the listing is right. Now they live in the truck behind the seat, they go on when I get to the courts and they come off before I drive home. Rubber that has crossed a gravel driveway does not hold the same way. That one rule has done more for my footing than any feature printed on the box.
Quiet feet at the kitchen line
The kitchen line is where I lose points, and most of it is my feet arriving late or arriving loud. With a flatter, firmer base under me I take shorter steps and I get there sooner. That is my own observation about my own game and I am not claiming it will be yours. What I can say is that when I am not worried about sliding I watch the ball instead of my feet, and watching the ball is worth more than any shoe ever will be.
They retired the running shoes I was already playing in
If you let me give only one reason, it is this one. The shoes I had been playing in were built for a heel strike and a forward roll along a sidewalk. Nothing about them was made for a hard court, a lateral push or two hours of short steps. They were comfortable. Comfortable and correct are two different things, and it took me a season and a half of Saturday doubles to notice the gap between them.
One pair, one job, in the truck behind the seat
I own one pair of court shoes. They are the ASICS Gel-Dedicate 9, they are lace-up with a rubber sole and foam insole, and they stay in the truck. I do not wear them to the hardware store and I do not wear them in the yard. Eight months of mornings on the same pair and the uppers still hold their shape. If you play four or five times a week, that is the math that matters: one pair, used only for the job it was built for.
What I'd Skip
Two things. The first is playing in running shoes at all, which I have now said three times, because it is the cheapest change on this list and I was stubborn about it for a season and a half. The second is the idea that a shoe is a fix. A court shoe will not repair a knee or an ankle and it will not make you a better player. I bought mine because my feet were sliding on a hard surface and that is the entire claim I am making. If your knees or ankles are bothering you, see your doctor first, then buy shoes built for the surface you actually play on. One small skip on top of that: do not wear them out to the mailbox. I learned that one the hard way.
The running shoes were comfortable. Comfortable is not the same as built for a hard court, and it took me a season and a half to notice.
If your court shoes are still your walking shoes, start here
ASICS Gel-Dedicate 9, lace-up, rubber sole, foam insole, moderate cushioning on the listing. The pair I have kept in the truck since March 2026. Check today's price and the current sizes at the link.
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