Editor’s note: This story has been updated with information about Vissla’s long-standing wetsuit recycling program was not included in the original version of the story.
Patagonia announced Wednesday that it has co-developed an end-of-life wetsuit solution with Colorado’s Bolder Industries to turn unwanted wetsuits into components for new wetsuits. The program works only with wetsuits made with Yulex natural rubber, a wetsuit material pioneered by Patagonia as a cleaner substitute for petroleum-based neoprene. Patagonia’s wetsuits are made from 85% Yulex natural rubber and 15% synthetic rubber.
Patagonia was the first brand to use Yulex rubber in its wetsuits, but has worked to share the technology with competing wetsuit makers in a bid to clean up the industry. Finisterre, Seea, Manera, and Nymph, among other brands, now use Yulex in their wetsuits.
Decathlon, one of the world’s biggest sellers of wetsuits for casual wearers, recently announced the first 100% Yulex wetsuit, the Yulex100, which will be introduced in their kids’ and snorkeling lines, marking a major step forward in the wetsuit industry’s embrace of natural rubber.
“The Decathlon news is the biggest win of my career,” Patagonia Global Surf Business Unit Director Jason McCaffrey told SES. McCaffrey has worked to encourage other wetsuit makers to experiment with natural rubber.
The proprietary process used by Bolder Industries breaks down natural rubber at the molecular level so that it can be made into carbon black, a material used to dye wetsuits (and other rubber and plastic materials) black, and that comprises as much as 20% of the rubber foam used in Patagonia’s wetsuits. Bolder Industries’ BolderBlack uses 90% less water and emits 90% fewer greenhouse gasses than traditional carbon black, which is typically produced from petrochemical-based compounds.
Hub Hubbard, Patagonia Surf Product Line Manager, with the BolderBlack material. Photo by Ryan ‘Chachi’ Craig, courtesy of Patagonia.
Patagonia isn’t the only company to recycle wetsuits. Since 2019, Vissla has offered its “Stoke Exchange” program both online and in its stores. In partnership with Surfrider, Vissla encourages surfers to send in any used or old wetsuit (from any brand) to be repurposed into new goods (yoga mats, etc.) in exchange for $30 off a new suit.
And earlier this year Rip Curl announced a partnership with TerraCycle to accept wetsuits for recycling worldwide, where the neoprene is broken down and re-used in other synthetic rubber applications. Retailers will occasionally accept unwanted wetsuits as donations for neoprene recycling companies as well.
But Patagonia’s program is the first geared directly to recycling wetsuits into material that will be included in new wetsuits, another step closer to Patagonia’s goal of increased circularity in wetsuit production.
“We hope that this breakthrough in recycling and circularity will go well beyond the surf industry and will eventually be implemented across countless product sectors,” said Hub Hubbard, Patagonia Surf Product Line Manager. “We have successfully piloted this program using reclaimed carbon black (RCB) from retired Yulex wetsuits as a main component in wetsuits and that cycle can repeat indefinitely.”
Patagonia will accept unwanted Yulex wetsuits from any brand as part of the program with Bolder Industries. Wetsuits can be dropped off at any Patagonia store for recycling or shipped directly to Patagonia’s Wetsuit Forge in Ventura, California.
