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Two inverted pairs go on sale first inside a Shinjuku office tower from October 31, priced at ¥25,300 each for atmoscon ticket holders.
The Shinjuku Sumitomo Building in Nishi-Shinjuku hosts atmos’s two-day atmoscon 2026 on October 31 and November 1, and the limited pre-release list for the atmos booth includes two pairs of the New Balance ABZORB 2000 sold under the name “Yin-Yang.” atmos published that lineup on October 5, pricing each pair at ¥25,300 including tax in sizes 23.0 to 29.0 cm plus 30.0 cm, and describing everything on the list as arriving in limited quantities ahead of its general release.
Signal. What happened: atmos added a two-pair New Balance ABZORB 2000 “Yin-Yang” pack to the limited pre-rel lineup for atmoscon 2026, its two-day sneaker and culture festival in Tokyo. Exact object: New Balance Abzorb 2000 “Yin-Yang,” one black-based and one white-based pair with inverted graphics, yin-yang insoles, and cord-lock lacing, ¥25,300 including tax per pair, sizes 23.0 to 29.0 cm plus 30.0 cm; style codes not disclosed. When and where: from October 31, 2026, at the atmos booth inside atmoscon 2026, Shinjuku Sumitomo Building, Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo, ahead of a general release that has not been dated. Source: atmos’s October 5 atmoscon announcement and festival FAQ, with model history from New Balance’s April 2025 ABZORB 2000 launch rel. Why it matters: little more than a year after launch, the ABZORB 2000 is getting concept-driven retailer treatments, and this one changes the lacing hardware as well as the shade.
Getting a pair means getting through the door first. Purchases on site require that day’s admission ticket, sales run first come, first served unless an item moves to a raffle, and the atmos booth does not allow try-ons, according to the festival’s own FAQ for this year’s edition, themed “PLAYGROUND for Next Generations.” Per-person purchase limits will be listed in a web catalog available at the venue, and any raffle items are to be announced through the atmoscon Instagram account. The two pairs share the list with atmos-specific makeups from several other running, trail, and lifestyle brands.
The venue sits directly off exit A6 of Tochomae Station on the Toei Oedo Line, a few minutes’ walk from Nishi-Shinjuku on the Marunouchi Line. Admission to the ground-floor main area is free for high school students and younger, while the basement hall runs a separate ticketed live stage across both days. The opening afternoon also hosts atmos’s Sneaker Best Dresser Award ceremony on the main floor. The convention itself dates to 2016, when atmos held the first one in Harajuku for roughly 600 visitors.
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The two colorways mirror each other. On the black pair, white curves run across black mesh; the white pair flips the arrangement, laying black graphics over a pale upper. The contrast carries from toe to heel and into fine diagonal lines, and where the two shades meet, the boundary follows the bumps of the segmented sole, so the same form reads tighter in black and lighter in white. Both insoles carry a yin-yang symbol, the one detail that names the theme outright.
The second change is mechanical. Standard laces give way to a cord with a sliding fastener for quick adjustment, a pull-lacing setup that gives the pared-back upper a more technical edge. With the palette cut to two tones, the flowing overlay lines and the sculpted sole carry the design. Neither atmos’s listing nor New Balance has published style codes for either pair, and the announcement does not say whether the pack is a formal atmos collaboration or an atmos-exclusive New Balance makeup.
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The shoe underneath is a little over a year old. New Balance previewed the ABZORB 2000 at Milan Design Week in early April 2025 and released it globally on June 12 of that year at $170, according to the brand’s own launch release from that spring. Rather than reissuing an archive model, the design borrows the look of 2000s running shoes and makes the cushioning the main character: a full-length ABZORB unit combined with ABZORB SBS pods, cushioning from heel to forefoot, and a Stability Web shank at the midfoot for support.
ABZORB itself dates to 1993. For the 2000, New Balance’s designers turned to 3D tools to shape the articulated sole, chasing curves that would have been hard to pin down in pencil sketches alone. Design manager Charlotte Lee framed the project as a balance between heritage and modernity, saying the team set out to “amplify those iconic design cues” while reworking them through a contemporary lens.
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The 2000 was not New Balance’s only ABZORB launch that spring. The brand introduced it alongside the ABZORB 2010, a more familiar-looking sibling with a diamond-knit mesh upper, SBS pods at the heel and forefoot, and a translucent TPU Stability Web, which arrived first on May 7, 2025 at $160. Of the two, the 2000 was the experimental one, with pods running its full length.
The debut pair arrived in a pale Still Water/Blue Agate makeup, and the lineup has widened quickly since. Tonal black, grey, and icy blue versions followed, atmos sold its own purple-shaded metallic exclusive (U2000PPB) at ¥22,000 in December 2025, and on October 1, 2026 New Balance launched a pared-back ABZORB 2000 Luxe at $160 with a more minimal open-mesh upper, as Gear Patrol reported last week.
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Against that run, the Yin-Yang pairs come in ¥3,300 above what atmos charged for its December exclusive. No general release date or channel has been posted, which leaves the atmos booth at the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building, opening for atmoscon on October 31, as the first confirmed point of sale.
