SAPI plates or Small Arms Protective Inserts are generally ceramic or composite plates designed to take and stop one to several rifle caliber projectiles. There are many options out on the market in terms of weight and the levels of protection that they offer.

There are numerous reasons as to why one might want to and choose to own and/or wear plates, but more importantly plates are not worth anything if they are incorrectly sized and worn improperly. There is a tendency among a lot of individuals lack experience and/or the proper instruction on this subject to make mistakes with regards to armour.

Mistake #1 – Wearing Plate/Armour Carrier Loosely.

Let’s be serious wearing armour fucking sucks its heavy and it doesn’t breath, ceramic does not breath, kevlar doesn’t breath either no matter what the manufacturer says about whatever next level space age sweat wicking and breathing material they put into their product. If you are wearing armour in either hot or cold environments you’ll probably sweat regardless if your hauling as down some street or just standing around inside in a static position, that vest is gonna get some funk for sure. But here’s the real kicker, getting SHOT sucks even more, SAPI’s do a pretty good job of protecting your vitals when you wear them properly, the biggest problem is individuals wishing to increase breathability wear their carriers loosely and sagging.

Mistake #2 – Wearing Incorrect Size

That guy who’s 6′ 2″ and 215lbs probably isn’t a Medium, and leaves considerable amount of his vitals exposed when wearing a plate that is to small. At the same time the small guy who wears a Large plate will considerably lose mobility by increasing load and speeding up fatique and physically preventing proper extension and punch out with a pistol.

I’m by no means an expert on body armour but can offer some serious considerations and suggestions in it’s use and application from my knowledge on the subject.

Below are two diagrams on proper SAPI placement they are not my own they are from here which is a complete overview on the proper use of armour.