Patagonia

After 4.5 years of R&D in partnership with Yulex® we developed a plant-based rubber from guayule—a renewable non-food crop that used no pesticides and required very little water and a less toxic manufacturing process than traditional neoprene.

We made this proprietary, game-changing biorubber available to the rest of the surf industry. Because when volumes go up, prices go down; and when more surfers can choose less harmful suits, we all win.

Switching to rubber tapped from hevea trees reduced the CO₂ emissions from one wetsuit by up to 80%. To make sure we weren’t contributing to deforestation, we partnered with the Forest Stewardship Council® to ensure that our hevea rubber was sourced only from plantations that preserve biodiversity and ecological integrity.

Our entire wetsuit line is Fair Trade Certified™ meaning workers earn a premium for their labor. Our Yulex® suits evolved in comfort and stretch—surpassing our previous standards of performance while manufacturing suits in an environmentally responsible way. Yulex® wetsuits now feature solution-dyed linings to reduce water usage along with water-based Aqua-A™ glue that’s free of harmful VOCs.

Yulex® natural rubber* is a major player in surf, having made its way into the wetsuit selections of Billabong, needessentials, Seea, Finisterre, SRFACE and many more—because finding less harmful ways to make the products we need to do the things we love is more important now than it has ever been before.