In early 2000, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, an avid surfer, was unsatisfied with his neoprene wetsuit, particularly its environmental impact. He started looking for a sustainable alternative.
In 2008, Patagonia came across Yulex. The Yulex team visited Patagonia HQ in 2009 and showed Yvon that they could develop a foam that would perform better than neoprene for warmth, performance, flexibility and importantly, sustainability.
Since 2016 Patagonia has transitioned all neoprene-based products to Yulex foam and won several awards for their Yulex products.
• 2016 Product of the Year – ISPO
• 2016 Innovation Award – SIMA Awards
• 2015 Environmental Award – SIMA Awards.
Our goal is to develop innovative solutions for replacing toxic petroleum-based textiles. When we saw Patagonia's blog developing our first wetsuit—that’s also sustainably made, we knew we were not the only ones looking for a greener alternative. It became clear that Patagonia was the partner to work with on this mission. We offered "first mover" exclusive rights for YULEX Foam to Patagonia, but in the spirit of their values, they insisted on offering it to the entire industry in the hopes that other companies would join them to move away from neoprene.
— Patagonia
We have been working for well over a decade to make neoprene a thing of the past. Since the inception of the partnership, we and Patagonia have worked to help make the foams lighter, stronger and stretchier – so performance is not the excuse.
The neoprene-free Yulex wetsuits featured FSC-certified natural rubber, replacing a petroleum-based polymer with a plant-based one that significantly reduced CO2 emissions compared to neoprene production.
— Hub Hubbard, Product Developer, Patagonia
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