Yulex® Naturkautschuk
We make all our wetsuits using natural rubber — a plant-derived material tapped from Hevea trees.
We use OCENA® and Yulex® rubber foam to make our wetsuits, both of which comprise of 85% natural rubber (OCENA® and Yulex®) and 15% synthetic rubber by polymer content. Natural rubber starts as latex, tapped from Hevea trees, which is collected and processed before being made into the foam at the heart of our wetsuits – giving them the stretch, strength and warmth for the demands of cold water. The synthetic rubber adds flex and stability, and the linings and laminates are made with recycled polyester and polyamide.
Why Natural Rubber?
Traditionally, wetsuits have been made from neoprene, a synthetic rubber made from finite, fossil-fuel-derived raw materials. Using natural rubber means most of the rubber in our wetsuits comes from renewable trees, not a finite fossil-fuels, while still performing in a cold oceans. It isn’t a perfect material. Natural rubber still needs land, processing and shipping, and our suits still contain synthetic rubber, fabrics and adhesives. But it’s something we’ve been committed to since 2019, and we’re not done yet.
Our Journey With Natural Rubber
We first brought Yulex® natural rubber into our range in 2019, and by 2021 every Finisterre wetsuit was made using it. Our new Shearwater wetsuits use OCENA® natural rubber, the next evolution in our journey with the material...
Yulex®
We still use Yulex® across our wetsuit range, and it’s what made our move to natural rubber possible. Yulex® refines the latex, then purifies and concentrates it. It’s then coagulated by changing the electrical charge of the rubber particles, which forms soft clumps that are rinsed, milled and dried into Yulex® Pure, a dry, solid natural rubber. This is blended with synthetic rubber to make our wetsuit foam.
OCENA®
The foam in our Shearwater wetsuits is made with OCENA®: 85% natural rubber and 15% synthetic rubber. It also swaps two conventional ingredients for recovered ones. Calcium carbonate from discarded oyster shells replaces mined calcium carbonate, and ECO Infinic’s recovered carbon black, made from waste tyres in Thailand, is used over conventional petroleum-based carbon black.
What’s On The Horizon?
Natural rubber technology keeps moving, and so do the materials we use. We work with specialist partners to test new natural-rubber constructions, checking how they perform before they go anywhere near our products. As the technology develops, we’ll keep reviewing our materials and looking for ways to improve our natural rubber wetsuits without compromising on performance.
