Patagonia has joined forces with Yulex, a clean-technology company developing agricultural-based biomaterials, to develop a wetsuit made of renewable biorubber, an alternative to the traditional fossil-based neoprene, the most environmentally harmful part of the product due to its production process. The material that makes up the new wetsuit is 60 percent based on guayule, a flowering shrub that has a clean manufacturing process. The suits will be initially available in Japan only, then from Patagonia's wetsuit facility in California, starting next spring, with a global rollout to follow.

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