atmos and New Balance Ready Squeaky Clean '2002RAT' Colab
Spotting a rat is usually cause for alarm instead of excitement but in the case of and rodent-inspired colab, it's a welcome sighting. A squeaky clean design that offers up a crisp colour scheme and just enough mouse-inspired details to catch your attention, atmos' effort is the latest in a long line of appealing 2002R colabs – following its re-workings by and .
Officially dubbed the '2002RAT,' this shoe's defining detail is the debossed rat footprints that can be seen on its midfoot overlay, a nod to the rats present in Shibuya. Besides that embellishment, there's also an outlined mouse graphic that's nested on the insoles. Apart from when they burst across the floor and give you a fright, any wise rat will remain low-key, so the 2002RAT is made of mesh, suede and leather, all of which are done up in grey, white or navy. The most special material used is the hairy Harako leather on the toebox, a nod to a rat's grey fur. Down below, the 2002R's gel-equipped N-ERGY midsole (borrowed from the ) completes the look.
atmos have announced that the 2002RAT will release on May 28. It'll be available through a raffle on their webstore (which is open now), and its MSRP is set at a tax-included ¥19,800 JPY – roughly $156 in US dollars. Happy hunting!
To learn more about another popular performance-turned-lifestyle model from New Balance, for a complete history of the 550.