Yulex® Natural Rubber

Why

Surfers have been hooked on neoprene—the base material for wetsuits—since the 1950s. But it’s a nonrenewable material with an energy-intensive manufacturing process. Developed by DuPont in 1930, this synthetic rubber was initially made by chlorinating and polymerizing butadiene, a petrochemical derived from crude oil. In recent decades, some companies have used limestone as an alternative to neoprene, but it’s not much better for the environment. Limestone is also a nonrenewable material that is difficult and damaging to extract. Once it is mined, the limestone is then crushed and superheated to over 3,600° F (1,982° C), a process that requires massive amounts of energy.

Part of our intent in starting to make wetsuits in 2008 was to develop a less-harmful alternative to neoprene. First, we incorporated rubber derived from the guayule plant. A few years later, we eliminated neoprene from our suits entirely by using natural rubber tapped from hevea trees. Our renewable Yulex® natural rubber performs just as well as neoprene without relying on petroleum.

Where We Are

In 2016, we were the first surf company to go neoprene-free. Yulex® natural rubber is now the base polymer for all of our men’s, women’s and kids’ suits as well as our gloves, booties and hoods.

But natural rubber can have nasty environmental consequences, too—hevea is a cash crop in many tropical countries, and to plant more of it, rainforests have been slashed and burned, waterways drained and diverted, and toxic defoliants used to remove native ground cover. In Southeast Asia, farmers have cleared an area of native forest about the size of Massachusetts and Vermont combined to cultivate hevea.

When we decided to switch to natural rubber, we wanted to make sure we weren’t contributing to deforestation, so we partnered with the Forest Stewardship Council® to ensure that our hevea rubber was sourced only from plantations that preserve biodiversity and ecological integrity. All of our Yulex natural rubber is Forest Stewardship Council certified by Preferred by Nature, ensuring that it doesn’t come from newly clear-cut rainforest, like some of the world’s supply.

What’s Next

When we were working with guayule rubber, we ran ads with a slightly cryptic headline: “We have the best weed in town, and we’re giving it away.”

In the small print, we explained we were sharing our Yulex® technology with the rest of the industry in the hope that other companies would join us in the shift away from neoprene. We kept up that call when we transitioned to natural rubber, and now several other surf companies are incorporating it in their suits. For us, it’s not about having an advantage in business—it’s about changing the whole surf industry for the better.

From our perspective, however, the best thing about Yulex natural rubber is that we no longer have to choose between performance and the planet. How a suit works in the water—and how long it holds up to everyday use—is still the most important priority, and we’ve been working to make our natural rubber as light, strong and stretchy as possible. As we look to the future, we hope to further maximize Yulex’s performance potential while continuing to encourage surfers, and other surf brands, to make neoprene a thing of the past.

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, required very little water and had 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—our planet does, too.

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 made in a Fair Trade Certified™ factory, 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 that were less impactful on our environment. Yulex wetsuits now feature solution-dyed linings to reduce water usage along with water-based AquaA® glue made without harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds).

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 ever before.