When Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia in 1973 sustainability was at the heart of the company and ever since Patagonia started making wetsuits in 2008 those same values have been the driving factor in every decision they’ve made.

Patagonia started making wetsuits with the aim was to develop a less-harmful alternative to neoprene. Fast forward to 2024 and their latest range of Yulex suits are made from 85% Yulex natural rubber and 15% synthetic rubber by polymer content.

Despite incorporating natural rubber into their wetsuits for over a decade, the team at Patagonia will be the first to admit that their latest offering is head and shoulders above the first Yulex product they went to market with in 2012.

Hub Hubbard, Product Line Manager for the surf arm of Patagonia, explained that the company’s relationship with Yulex first started around 2008 or 2009.

“At that time Patagonia had put something out saying that there is no such thing as green neoprene. The guys at Yulex saw that and reached out to explain that they’ve been making latex alternatives in the medical field for items such as gloves and condoms. They told Patagonia that they believed they could do something to help in terms of wetsuits. Yulex wanted some funding to help the development and at that time not many brands wanted to get involved but Patagonia saw the vision and invested, this is where the relationship began.”

So who are Yulex and why is there a need to create a more environmentally friendly wetsuit?

Yulex is a company which was founded on the principle of producing responsible, sustainable, renewable plant-based products from natural rubber. The Yulex rubber currently used in Patagonia wetsuits comes from the Hevea Tree in South-East Asia and is Forest Stewardship Council certified, meaning that it does not come from plants that are in areas of deforestation.

The reason Patagonia and Yulex formed this close relationship is because they were aware of the harsh environmental impacts and potential negative effects on human health that original Neoprene wetsuits can have.

Mackenzie Warner, Material Developer at Patagonia, explains why neoprene is a non-renewable material with an energy intensive manufacturing process.

“Another negative of chloroprene-based rubber is the negative human health impact. Chloroprene is a known human health carcinogen so it can cause cancer as well as birth defects when people are exposed to it. So the people working with these chemicals during production are exposing themselves to these chemicals. So the use of Yulex’s natural rubber not only solves environmental issues, it also solves this massive health issue.

“Limestone had been touted as an alternative to neoprene but the problem is that it’s a finite resource, it’s not regenerative and the machinery used to mine limestone emits a lot of gasses.”

Following years of research and development, Patagonia and Yulex brought their first suit to market in 2012, which Hub admits was a work in progress.

“I think in hindsight the suit could have been a lot better. The first Yulex suit came from guayule, which is like a desert shrub. It was awesome but it would take an entire company investing in it to make it affordable. Yulex then started looking at Hevea and we had to make sure it was FSC certified because the natural rubber industry is still a very dirty industry. We are now working in South-East Asia and so we are getting closer to the source of production and therefore reducing our carbon footprint.”

While Patagonia pioneered Yulex technology in the surf industry, they were always adamant they did not want the technology to be exclusive to them.

“The surf business within Patagonia is very small compared to the whole business,” explains Hub. “As a wetsuit brand we are very small and we knew this would have little impact if it was exclusive to us and so from the beginning we always said we would make this available to all the other brands in the industry.”

Hub concedes it was a ‘battle at every turn’ to convince other wetsuit brands to use Yulex. However, he believes there is now a change in attitudes and many brands are adopting the use of Yulex, or another version of natural rubber.

Mackenzie explains that the biggest challenge with the production of the Yulex range has been ensuring that the suit is ‘high performing and long lasting’. However, she believes it is now almost impossible to tell the difference between the latest range of Yulex suits and a neoprene wetsuit.

“As a surf consumer the first thing you do when you go into a shop and look for a wetsuit is pull on the sleeve and do the stretch test. If you can’t pass that then there’s no point in even making the wetsuit. We learnt this the hard way with the first ever Yulex suits. But I think that is what’s so cool with Yulex, seeing how far we’ve come to achieve its current stretch profile. The fact natural rubber has now caught up to chloroprene in terms of performance; I think it’s a really easy transition for people to make when they’re purchasing their next wetsuit.”

While it seems like Patagonia now has their wetsuits dialed in, the crew maintains a philosophy of constant improvement. One of their most recent ventures has been finding solutions for wetsuits at the end of their life.

Earlier this year, Patagonia began collecting end-of-life Yulex wetsuits to be broken down at molecular level by Bolder Industries and used as carbon black in the dyeing process of future Yulex suits. Carbon black is used to dye the wetsuits’ recycled nylon lining and accounts for 15 – 20% of Patagonia wetsuits’ rubber foam. Production of Bolder Industries’ BolderBlack uses 90% less water and emits 90% fewer greenhouse gases than traditional carbon black.

Commenting on the project, Hub said: “We’ve been working on this for years. It’s as exciting to me as the original Yulex thing, unlocking that end of life part has been so rad.”

Mackenzie adds: “This part is so important when you know how many wetsuits are produced by year and realise that prior to this, there was no solution for it. End of life has always been a huge challenge because there are so many components that go into a wetsuit. However, this now guarantees wetsuits won’t end up in landfill and the material recovered in the process could go into anything synthetic that is black. This could be done on any natural rubber wetsuits, it’s a way to clean up the surf industry.”

If the surf industry is to ‘clean itself up’, I think it’s fair to say that much of that will be down to the work done by Patagonia and Yulex who have been pioneers in bringing natural rubber into wetsuit production. Hub looks forward to a clean wetsuit future and believes that in the next ten years it will be ‘extremely rare to see chloroprene in any wetsuits’.

In the meantime, when you next go to purchase a new wetsuit, have a think about exactly where all that material is coming from.