It’s quite literally a freak of nature that’s been embraced by Edmontonians all summer and now it seems fans of Edmonton’s Accidental Beach are latching on to a fashion trend brought on by the big, new bank of sand on the North Sakatchewan River”: Accidental Beach tank tops and T-shirts.
“It’s an accidental Accidental Beach T-shirt in many respects,” Mark Wilson, a partner at Vivid Print, said about the Old Strathcona store’s new beach wear on Monday.
“We didn’t expect it to be as popular as it ended up being.”
According to Wilson, Vivid Print owner Bee Waeland came up with the 80s-inspired tank top design about three weeks ago to give to some friends who are fond of the beach, which popped up out of nowhere east of downtown Edmonton this spring.
READ MORE: Growing popularity of downtown Edmonton’s new ‘accidental’ beach raises questions
“So it started really as an internal joke and people saw them and then we thought, ‘Oh. Now we have to actually make these.’ So they went into production.”
Wilson said the store sold out of its first run of tank tops in just over a day and that it is currently going into a fourth run, which includes T-shirts. The store is also planning to produce Accidental Beach hoodies now that summer is almost over.
Vivid Print has sold about 200 tank tops already.
READ MORE: City administration looking into what needs to be done to keep accidental beach
Watch below: Some videos from Global News stories about Edmonton’s Accidental Beach.
According to Wilson, the Accidental Beach fits with the store’s other merchandise.
“We specialize in all things Edmonton,” he said. “Edmonton is a series of pleasant surprises really and I think Accidental Beach has touched the hearts of many Edmontonians because it’s something that isn’t sanctioned and it wasn’t planned.
“It just kind of happened and I think that makes it all the much more appealing.”
The new beach, just downstream from the Low Level Bridge, appeared out of nowhere when construction crews building the Tawatina LRT bridge had to put temporary rock berms into the river. On warm summer days, hundreds of people could be seen enjoying the sand and water and the city has yet to decide what to do with it or whether there is a way to keep it once the berms for the LRT bridge are removed.
View below: Some photos of the Accidental Beach:
The beach has become so popular, Google has even made it a landmark on Google Maps.
“It’s not something you think of when you think of Edmonton,” Wilson said. “You don’t think of a sunny beautiful beach.
“It’s very chill. People are enjoying beverages but they’re being very subtle about it- they’re not waving beer bottles around. People are playing music but it’s not something you can hear blaring across the beach… I think given the experience the city has had with End of the World, I think they don’t want to see that being repeated at Accidental Beach, so people are being very respectful of both the environment and of the users of the beach.”
Wilson added it was amusing to him that the city has spent considerable time trying to figure out how to get Edmontonians enjoying the waterfront of the North Saskatchewan River and now the unintended Accidental Beach is doing just that.
READ MORE: Edmonton Riverkeeper tests water quality at accidental beach
“It didn’t take a bunch of lawyers to figure something out. It didn’t take a bunch of engineers, a bunch of studies or surveys – it just happened and people went with it,” he said. “It’s a very interesting sort of social experiment for the city.”
Comments