Wetsuits have traditionally been made out of neoprene, but we did away with that tradition in favor of producing the most environmentally friendly wetsuit on the market while increasing performance. We take the byproducts of the seafood industry, seashells, and extract the calcium carbonate from them. The calcium carbonate is baked into rubber chips which are then used to make our bio-foam wetsuits.
No, they’re better! Limestone wetsuits have long been regarded as a higher quality wetsuit than neoprene. However, limestone wetsuits require carbon-intensive mining operations to extract limestone from the earth. That limestone is melted down for its calcium carbonate, the very same ingredient we get from seashells. Instead of a carbon-intensive process that extracts a natural resource from the environment, we prevent the byproducts of the seafood industry from filling up yet another landfill. The result? The highest performance wetsuit on the market with the least amount of carbon emissions.
Yes! With a closed-cell wetsuit, like ours, there is an internal and external layer of fabric between the bio-foam. Our environmentally friendly fabric is made out of recycled plastic water bottles, rigorously tested to provide superior comfort and warmth on the inside and durability on the outside.
Our wetsuits are built to last. They will last 3-5 years with frequent use and proper care. Once your wetsuit gets to the end of its life, we’ll take your wetsuit back, recycle the materials, and give you a discount on a new wetsuit.
Our wetsuits are closed-cell, meaning they are designed for action sports taking place above the water. We are working on an open-cell wetsuit made with our seashell technology, but they aren’t out quite yet. That being said, people do sometimes use closed-cell wetsuits for scuba diving.
Yes! All of our glues and adhesives are water-based.
Putting on a neoprene wetsuit is essentially covering your body in oil. Yuck! While many people will find that their allergic reactions to neoprene don’t occur when wearing our wetsuits, we recommend you consult with your doctor.
Yes! We want a livable planet to be around for generations to come, not the wetsuits we make today. Calcium carbonate is completely biodegradable, but we don’t want our wetsuits slowly degrading in a landfill. Instead, send us your old GrayActiva wetsuits so that we can recycle them and give you a discount on your next wetsuit.
Not quite yet. Unlike our competitors, the only part of our manufacturing process that emits carbon is the melting of our seashells into rubber chips. We hope to make this process carbon-free in the near future and purchase carbon offsets where we can. Still, you can be confident that, while not quite perfect yet, our wetsuits are the least carbon-intensive, high performance option on the market.
We are currently in the process of manufacturing our first large round of wetsuits. You can expect to see GrayActiva wetsuits in stores near you in early 2022. Don’t want to risk missing out on the first batch of wetsuits? Order from our website today and have it shipped to your door in early 2022.