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The basic cleaning process for a plate carrier is fairly fast and easy, but some care should be taken to avoid a few problems. In most cases you can spot-clean a plate carrier with just a little soap and water. However, after many hours of wearing a plate carrier it can get a bit ripe and may require some deeper cleaning. Cleaning a plate carrier the wrong way can significantly reduce the life span of the carrier or result in complete failure. Under no circumstances should you every …

With the recent spike in crime across many major cities in the United States, now is a good time to take a close look at your Everyday Carry (EDC) equipment. For those unfamiliar, EDC generally refers to emergency gear that is compact and easy to carry on your person, such as knives, multitools, handguns, flashlight, etc. However, there are also multiple body armor options that you can easily incorporate into your EDC load out. This includes products such as our Flex Fused Core™ soft armor …

Currently Spartan Armor Systems™ offers seven (7) different NIJ certified products, but what does “NIJ certified” really mean? In this article we’re going to take a closer look at the process of NIJ Certification, specifically what it means for the end user and why you should buy NIJ certified body armor. If you’ve read our previous article “A Closer Look at Body Armor Ballistic Levels”, you’ll know that the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has …

Lightweight body armor is a practical solution for many people, not just hardcore Operators or SWAT members. In fact, there are several options for lightweight body armor that span across several threat levels of protection ranging from IIIA (handgun rated) up to IV (.30-06 armor piercing rated). To clarify, when we say “lightweight”, we are talking about body armor that is under the typical 8lb plate seen with many steel core and ceramic body armor plates. The practical use of li …

Based on what most people see in movies and tv it’s easy to think that all body armor plates will stop all bullet calibers. In reality, when you buy body armor, you have to make some considerations on which bullet calibers you want to stop. To simplify this issue a bit, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) created a standard for classifying body armor under “levels” based on the threats/calibers they defeat. You may often see this standard referred to as “NIJ 0101.06&r …