Patagonia has been at the forefront of reducing waste associated with the outdoor apparel industry. Soon, a breakthrough could have surfers hitting the waves with "endlessly reusable" wetsuits.
As detailed by Bloomberg, the company is partnering with Colorado-based startup Wibbeler to develop a proprietary wetsuit that is infinitely recyclable.
Patagonia's Wetsuit Forge, established in 2020 in Ventura, California, already has an onsite repair team. Wetsuit engineer Buddy Pendergast told the publication that Patagonia has roughly a 90% repair rate. Over the past three years, the squad has mended around 6,000 wetsuits, preventing them from potentially ending up in landfills.
The program also reduces resource consumption, and it saves consumers from needing to spend money on brand-new wetsuits — something generally pricier than repair.
Patagonia stopped using the synthetic, cancer-linked neoprene in its wetsuits in 2014, switching instead to a biorubber produced by Yulex. However, the company uses rubber foam that contains roughly 20% carbon black. Surf and wetsuits product line manager Hub Hubbard added that the wetsuits' recycled nylon lining also uses carbon black as a dye.
While the $2 billion wetsuit market doesn't churn out cheap clothes that quickly wear out, as the highly polluting fast fashion industry does, wetsuits still reach the point where they can't be salvaged. This is where Wibbeler can help.
According to Bloomberg, the startup offered to develop a proprietary method of reclaiming carbon black from wetsuits. Wibbeler says its current process, which extracts carbon black from old tires, is 85% more sustainable than traditional production.
Patagonia is planning to collect unrepairable wetsuits and send them to Wibbeler for carbon black extraction. The startup will then ship the carbon black to Patagonia. The BolderBlack wetsuits, the first to be made with reclaimed carbon black, are slated to be available for purchase in 2025.
"It's a circular solution, not just a sustainably sourced or a bio-based material," Wibbeler told the publication. "The cool part about this is that it's wetsuits to wetsuits."
In order for the initiative to be successful, though, Hubbard noted that surfers would need to participate by sending their end-of-life Patagonia wetsuits back to the company. On its website, Patagonia asks customers to wash and dry their Yulex wetsuits before either dropping them off at a local store or shipping them to the address provided.
"Our hope is that once this gets out, people are going to start digging out all their old wetsuits to send to us," Hubbard told Bloomberg.
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