About Us | 17th & Surf Coastal Streetwear

About 17th & Surf

Seaside Vibes Until We Die

17th & Surf is a coastal streetwear brand created by Joey and Kasey Accardi — built around the stories the ocean keeps.

We make limited-edition graphic tees and apparel rooted in maritime history, ocean folklore, and the strange, beautiful, sometimes funny and sometimes dangerous world at the water's edge.

Every design starts with something or someplace real: a place, a phenomenon, an animal, a piece of maritime history most people have never heard of. We dig into that world and bring those stories to the surface — then put them on a shirt.

No matter where you live, everyone feels the instinctual pull to the water's edge.

17th & Surf was founded by Joey and Kasey Accardi — a couple from North Wildwood, New Jersey, and Atlanta, Georgia respectively, who's shared interest in the dark and mysterious waters we call home birthed the brand. The brand is named for the stretch of shoreline we grew up around, and it carries that spirit into everything: the art, the attitude, and the reason behind each drop.

We're two people who genuinely love the water, the weird history it hides, and making things worth wearing.

Long before 17th & Surf existed, Joey was filling notebooks with sketches, painting comic book covers, and creating artwork inspired by fantasy, science fiction, marine life, and the strange side of nature.

Looking back, many of the themes that define 17th & Surf today were already there — ocean creatures, skeletal forms, mythology, adventure, and a fascination with the unknown.

The tools have changed, but the inspiration hasn't.

Before it was a brand, it was an intersection.

Before there were shirt designs, there were pizza boxes, newspaper racks, pastry cases, and long summer days spent working family businesses on the corner of 17th Avenue and Surf Avenue in North Wildwood, New Jersey.

For generations, the Accardi family operated businesses on what locals came to know as the "Accardi 4 Corners."

On one corner stood the News Center. On another, The Little Giant Market. Across the street sat Samuel's Pancake House. And at our corner of the intersection was Johnny's Pizza, named after our grandfather.

For us, this wasn't just a place to work. It was where we learned how to talk to people, how to build something, how to solve problems, how to sweep floors, stock shelves, fold boxes, serve customers and work hard before we were old enough to drive.

It was home. Every storefront, every sign, every corner of that intersection became part of who we are.