The Lengths We Go To In Wetsuit Sustainability

Rip Curl is proud to be a B Corporation (B Corp), after gaining certification in 2023.

B Corps are businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Certification means that Rip Curl meets high standards of social and environmental impact, laid out by B Lab (a global independent body). 

While we’re proud to be a B Corp, our commitment to reducing our impact began long before certification in 2023. It traces back to our founding in 1969, when Doug ‘Claw’ Warbrick and Brian Singer established Community and Environment as one of our guiding values. 

That commitment deepened in 2008 with the launch of Rip Curl Planet, the home of our sustainability initiatives and long-term environmental goals. 

With wetsuits sitting at the heart of our brand DNA, and because of their material complexity, they’ve been a key focus for us. We’ve concentrated on extending product lifespan, providing responsible end-of-life solutions that are more accessible to our customers and the wider surf community, and increasing the use of responsible materials.  

Here are some of the steps we’ve taken so far to reduce our impact in wetsuits:  

• Almost half of the wetsuits we ordered in 2025 were made from bio-based rubber. This number will continue to grow as we progress to our 2030 targets.  
• We have industry-leading Service and Repair Centres, that aim to maintain and extend the life of our wetsuits. Last year alone we repaired over 10,000 wetsuits. 
• When we can’t extend a wetsuit’s life, we take it (any brand, not just Rip Curl) and recycle it through our global Recycle Your Wetsuit program available in Australia, Europe, and North America (we’ve recycled over 25,000 wetsuits to date). 
• We also recycle and upcycle production waste, and the post-production waste of old wetsuits, into carpet underlay. 

Responsible Rubber

In 2021, we began to integrate new foam solutions into our wetsuits after years of validation and testing. The first solution we explored was BIO SS rubber, which utilises natural rubber, softeners, and powdered oyster shells as renewable fillers. BIO SS rubber meets the elongation, thermal performance, and durability we demand from our products to help reduce the environmental impact of traditional petrochemical-based neoprene. We later introduced Eucaprene rubber, which contained eucalyptus oil and recycled oyster shell powder to further reduce the impact of the foam. 

In 2024, Rip Curl began manufacturing wetsuits using Yulex natural rubber harvested from rubber trees, a plant-based and latex-allergy friendly alternative to chloroprene that replaces over 60% of the foam formula. 

In 2025, we switched to using OCENA® rubber, one of the most sustainable alternatives to synthetic rubber available today. Comprising 74% bio-based content and crafted from renewable materials like rubber tapped from 100% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified plantations, oyster shell powder, and plant-based oils.   

This resulted in a marked increase in natural rubber throughout our wetsuits from 16% in FY23, to 25% of the product ordered for FY24, and 47% of product ordered for FY25.  

Our journey with integrating preferred materials into our wetsuits is ever evolving as we constantly refine new plant-based foam formulations and explore alternative ingredients such as oyster shell and soybean. 

Rip Curl Owned Factory & Production 

Since 1989, Rip Curl has owned and operated the wetsuit manufacturing facility Onsmooth in Chiang Mai, which in 2023 became the second Certified B Corp facility in Thailand. Operating this facility allows us to control the environmental impact of wetsuit production, as well as pricing, lead times, and entitlements for our workers, all while allowing us to develop the ultimate wetsuits. 

We foster and nurture the social element by paying a living wage and encouraging our crew to be part of community clubs. Our factory is one of the several Rip Curl-occupied sites where we’ve installed solar panels to create renewable energy to reduce our consumption of power and electricity. In 2021 and 2022, we offset 100% of our operational emissions, and about 130 tonnes of offcuts from the wetsuit factory were diverted from landfill to make carpet underlay.  

Since 2008, we’ve been upcycling production waste and old wetsuits into new materials for footwear, coolers, and padding for backpacks.  We reduce our waste by ensuring that our production lay markers are optimising the use of the materials within our products. We collaborated with our partner Airstep to convert the neoprene waste into new carpet underlay materials that would otherwise go into landfill.  

More recently, Rip Curl has been working with Circular Flow to recycle old wetsuits into new surf accessories through our takeback program, with plans to grow this initiative further through 2026.   

Our suppliers reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90% in the production of lower impact carbon black over traditional virgin carbon black used in wetsuit foam.  Lower impact carbon black is recovered through pyrolysis processing of used car tires and we’re in collaboration to use old disused wetsuits and waste neoprene materials to produce lower impact carbon black.  

Product Finishes

We use water-based laminations to reduce the amount of volatile organic compounds emitted as harmful gases from solvent-based adhesives. Using recycled jerseys rather than virgin polyester minimises the impact on precious production resources and reduces our reliance on fossil fuels.  

Our material suppliers save up to 60% of our water consumption by using a water-saving dyeing machine rather than traditional water dyeing methods. 50% of the water used in the dyeing process can be reused in the process with our new wastewater treatment.  

By utilising digital printing for all multi-colour prints and yardages, production waste is further reduced. Additionally, we use solution dyeing to save energy and conserve water and to improve our products’ colourfastness and resistance to fading. 

From Factory To Warehouse

As part of our Search to do things better across the board, we’re on a journey to reduce the amount of waste through shipping our goods and the use of plastic. We know this is an area with a huge environmental impact and that’s why we have a strong commitment to implement more and better sustainable practices.  

By reducing the physical size of shipping bags and eliminating polybags from our largest volume colourways to Australia, we have made significant reductions in plastic waste. Through implementing new smart film with BDP additive, we’ve been able to further reduce our material volume of plastic by 40% across all wetsuit production for Rip Curl. 

All our swing tag packaging is produced using paper and car stock certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as part of our responsible sourcing strategy. We've ditched the traditional little plastic Kimble tag commonly found on swing tags, and all wetsuit hangers are currently made from recycled ocean-bound plastics. We aim to update these hangers to 80% recycled polymers in a construction that is both durable and capable of 100% domestic recycling. 

End-Of-Life Solutions  

We’re committed to innovations in circularity and are working to bring you a full end-of-life solution for Rip Curl wetsuits. ReEntry is a series of initiatives to drive end-of-life solutions for all products through a number of solutions with the aim of preventing products from going to landfill. 

We offer a Wetsuit Take Back Program across Australia, USA, France, Portugal, and Spain so surfers can repurpose any surf-branded wetsuit through key Rip Curl stores to produce new materials for other products and industries. So far, we’ve diverted over 25,000 wetsuits from landfill. 

Our Wetsuit Take Back Program will be further enhanced to recycle products to produce compounds such as carbon black used in the production of new wetsuit materials. 

We provide our customers with access to industry-leading Service and Repair Centres to maintain and extend the life of our wetsuits.  

In 2024, Rip Curl launched a new wetsuit hiring initiative in Europe, allowing customers to hire a wetsuit when visiting a destination for a short period of time, rather than having to purchase a new wetsuit they will only use a few times.  

Sustainable production is rapidly changing with new and better ways to do business. We always strive to do better for our Crew, customers, and the environment and will continue to refine our process and integrate our learnings.