Patagonia Yulex allergy

luckyroland's picture
luckyroland started the topic in Wednesday, 15 Nov 2017 at 12:47pm

Hey gang, long time reader first time poster!

Had a Yulex R3 fall apart on me in the space of 6 weeks at the beginning of this year in Chile, which was graciously and promptly replaced by Patagonia upon my return home ("sorry it's broke, we can't fix it?")

Beyond the obvious durability issue, both the original suit and the replacement gave my skin a really severe reaction - I suffer pretty mild eczema but you'd think I'd have been in a fire after hopping out of the surf. It was really disappointing as the suits are hypoallergenic and great for those wth latex allergies - I foolishly hoped that meant 'generally good for people with sensitive skin' which was a mistake!

It all ticked over in my brain for a while before I decided to do some research as to why I had he reaction I did - it didn't take me long to find a research paper from 1981 on PubMed indicating the Guayule plant (base material for the Yulex fabric) contains a severe skin irritant for contact dermatitis - on par with poison ivy! I've been trying to get in touch with Patagonia for over a month about this and it's radio silence.. anyone else experienced something similar? Patagonias unwillingness to engage with me is troubling, particularly as I feel that all I am offering is overly extensive feedback from a loyal customer...
Would love other people's 2c on the matter!!

If it interests you I recorded a brief podcast summarizing my whole experience (15mins or so, find here - https://soundcloud.com/roland-davies-696828640/greening-out-16-dear-pata... )

Cheers!
Rols

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Friday, 17 Nov 2017 at 8:57am

Shit.
I reckon Glen Casey will engage with you on this
Patagonia Byron Bay.

crg's picture
crg's picture
crg Friday, 17 Nov 2017 at 1:17pm

Case is no longer with Patagonia Byron Bay. Patagonia Australia has taken the shop back under their operations as I understand.

MMartin's picture
MMartin's picture
MMartin Friday, 17 Nov 2017 at 3:50pm

Hi Rols,
Matt Martin -National Sales Manager at Patagoina-sorry to hear about the experience you had with the previous Generation of the Yulex suits. I've left you a message with my details on your instagram account, so please feel free to contact me directly.

Generally speaking-we've a robust Guarantee in place to service any issues such as yours-I've included the link here to outline it.
https://www.patagonia.com.au/pages/ironclad-guarantee

But I'm keen to chat with you and see why you've not heard back from our team.

CRG- Case is still working with us at the Patagonia Byron Store, so you can catch the Guru in there a few days each week.

Have a great weekend-hope you get some waves.

Matt

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Thursday, 15 Apr 2021 at 8:42pm

Anymore Allergies ?

Jockhobbs's picture
Jockhobbs's picture
Jockhobbs Friday, 16 Apr 2021 at 2:59pm

Related kind off.

I developed a major acute kidney issue that docs attributed to neoprene sealant (although not 100% sure). The chemical toluene is nasty shit. Just be bit careful if you use it. It’s taken 3 years for my kidneys to get back to full working capacity. Scary.

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Friday, 16 Apr 2021 at 3:45pm

Wow that's crazy...did you do a repair or they think just from a standard wetsuits?

Doublems111's picture
Doublems111's picture
Doublems111 Sunday, 25 Apr 2021 at 2:51pm

We are not alone I see.
I had an excruciating neck rash from my Billabong Furnace. It took a while to work it out as ive never had issues and just blamed work shirts, washing powder, etc but low and behold every (coldwater)surf it came back with a vengance. They have a rubber based neckline to assist with watertightness i guess. The material feels similar to what is one many chest/stomach patches... very warm and flexi suit but just couldn't bare it anymore. Moved on to Isirus which sounds to be on another level. Good luck.

Doublems111's picture
Doublems111's picture
Doublems111 Sunday, 25 Apr 2021 at 2:54pm

Ps, I have a patagonia wetsuit top and has lasted 3 seasons and still super comfy, warm plus no rash. Their yulex steamer was in my cart till the isirus sale got me.

zenagain's picture
zenagain's picture
zenagain Sunday, 25 Apr 2021 at 4:25pm

I'm no spring chicken and as we're in the change of seasons, today I wore my RC dawn patrol steamer and booties. First surf this year out of gloves too. Maybe me but going from the Patagonia R4 Yulex into a lighter weight suit was like finally being released from a straight jacket.

I'm not sure about Yulex but I don't remember my last R4 to be so restrictive and that was normal rubber. Wearing the Dawny today felt positively liberating.

Jockhobbs's picture
Jockhobbs's picture
Jockhobbs Monday, 26 Apr 2021 at 12:22pm
indo-dreaming wrote:

Wow that's crazy...did you do a repair or they think just from a standard wetsuits?

I repaired it with liquid sealant. Warning signs all over it e.g. causes birth defects etc. Might just be an auto immune response to the toxins.

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Monday, 26 Apr 2021 at 12:46pm

3M Data Sheet - just to give an idea of what the evil in glue can be
https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=SSSSSuUn_zu8lZ094xtvo...

Christ knows what Adhesives Sheico or others offshore use

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Monday, 26 Apr 2021 at 1:54pm
udo wrote:

3M Data Sheet - just to give an idea of what the evil in glue can be
https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=SSSSSuUn_zu8lZ094xtvo...

Christ knows what Adhesives Sheico or others offshore use

I actually just bought a new wetty yesterday.

Anyway here is one of the tags 100% Sheico suit as its got www.sheico.com on the back of the tag.

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Monday, 26 Apr 2021 at 2:29pm

Good stuff - Way more Enviro conscious than i thought
https://sheico.com/en-ww/department/department.php?pid=1