Nike Air Max 90 Highlight: Bacon

In celebration of the Air Max 90’s 30th anniversary, we return with our second installment to the anniversary highlight, spotlighting Dave’s Quality M3AT’s coveted 2006 collaboration, the DQM x Nike Air Max 90 Bacon. 

Nike Air Max 90 “Bacon” from 2006

The Air Max 90 Bacon is one of the most highly sought after Nike Air Max 90s of all time. The sneaker’s reputation is so robust that this famous colorway always makes its way into even the newest sneakerhead’s awareness, and for good reason. The Nike Air Max 90 Bacon came during a time when Nike was experimenting with colorways on their classic silhouettes. Sneakers that have built the foundation for sneaker culture, such as the Tiffany and Pigeon SB dunks, Stash Air Max BWs, and Atmos Viotech Air Max 1s, were all novel products birthed from Nike’s willingness to let artists and boutiques get as creative as they could on some of their most popular models during that era. 

Cultural collaborations of this caliber were still fairly new for Nike, their first one being with Stussy in 2000. But David Ortiz and his lower Manhattan boutique, Dave’s Quality M3AT, was one of the few stores blessed with a joint project. Originally a graffiti artist and former employee of Zoo York, one of the city’s most popular skateboarding brands, Ortiz was inspired to create his own sneaker shop. “I was opening a…concept store before concept stores even really existed.” stated Ortiz in an interview with StockX. It was one of the few “concept stores” to appear in the New York City sneaker scene at the time. Before online shopping was extremely popular and accessible, buying sneakers was a hunt. Travelling between different boroughs on foot was the only way to get your hands on unique shoes. “It was mostly digging through the crates… You’d go out to Brooklyn, find an old Jewish man with a basement full of deadstock… It was kinda like this quest,” said Ortiz in a Sneaker News interview. 

Two of David Ortiz’s inspirations for his concept store

As an attempt to transform the original tactic of sneaker buying, Ortiz wanted to create a store that made the quest for sneaker shopping more memorable and unique. Gaining inspiration from his M3AT graffiti tag and a local butcher shop he would frequent, Ortiz developed Dave’s Quality M3AT. The store gave shoppers the look and feel of an actual butcher shop, displaying meat hooks, steak scales weighing sneakers, and even an authentic meat fridge displaying apparel and footwear. It was a quirky store that got attention from New Yorkers and Nike for its novelty. 

In 2005, Ortiz was approached by Nike for a collaborative shoe of his choice. Thinking outside of the usual Air Force 1 or Nike Dunk selection, and wanting a shoe he could wear throughout the day at his store, Ortiz chose the Air Max 90. He was given six months to come up with a concept and colorway for the shoe, but inspiration struck Ortiz three days before the final submission period, thanks to a hankering for a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. 

Inside Dave’s Quality M3ATs

In an interview with StockX, Ortiz said: “Ultimately, it came from the urge to have a bacon sandwich, walking the Key Food aisles, having the idea in the bacon section, buying a ton of bacon, and cooking it to various crunchiness levels.” With some quick edits on a computer and careful observation of various strips of bacon, the “Bacon” sneaker was crafted. The shoe is composed of various shades of dark red, pink, and creme colored tumbled leather and suede to depict the popular breakfast meat. 

David Ortiz with his official Nike Air Max 90 “Bacon”

Despite today’s praise of the sneaker, Ortiz’s Air Max 90 was not a popular release on the day of its debut. “It took two days till they were gone,” says Ortiz, as the shoe sold solely from casual foot traffic into DQM when it was spotted on the shelves. But as the years have passed, the Air Max 90 Bacon gained more and more hype for its one-of-a-kind concept. 

Today, the Air Max 90 Bacon is considered a grail in the sneaker community, going for over $1,000 in some sizes on StockX. Although Dave Ortiz sold his DQM shop in 2010, he still gets recognized for his contribution to the sneaker community. There are many Air Max collaborations that have come after it, each with their own special origins, but for a shoe like the Bacon to still garner hype 15 years after its release proves it’s noteworthy pair.