Premier Body Armor’s Everyday Armor T-Shirt offers level IIIA protection in a concealable package. Here we test how well it wears and how well it stops threats.
Some situations call for extra protection but not extra attention. Whether you work a dangerous job or just want the option of having additional peace of mind while exploring a less-than-friendly neighborhood, a concealable bulletproof vest is a great tool to have in the toolbox. One such option is Premier Body Armor’s Everyday Armor T-Shirt.
Premier was kind enough to send me two sets—one to wear and one to execute—and here I’ll be going over how the Everyday Armor T-Shirt fared in terms of concealability, comfortability and resistibility to common handgun threats.
What Is The Everyday Armor T-Shirt?
As its name suggests, the Everyday Armor T-Shirt is a T-shirt that holds armor panels and is comfortable and concealable enough to wear every day. Each set comes with two level IIIA armor panels and a polyester/elastane compression fabric shirt specifically designed to carry them.
The magic of this setup is more in the shirt itself than the armor panels. While the armor is impressively strong and light on its own, it wouldn’t be worth a damn if it couldn’t be comfortably concealed. The Everyday Armor T-Shirt accomplishes this handily.
The compression material of the shirt combined with what Premier Body Armor calls “concealment channels”, the armor panels are hugged close to the body and don’t droop or sag. That helps with both consistently protecting one’s cardiac box as well as with preventing others from noticing it. Each armor panel’s scant 0.8-pound weight helps with that as well.
The shirt is also light, breathable and soft, all excellent points since it’s designed to be worn as an undershirt. One important note is that Premier Body Armor recommends ordering a size down from what you usually wear to ensure a snug fit. I did, and it fits perfectly.
Also, if this is something you intend on wearing often, Premier sells additional shirts separately so you can regularly wash and rotate them, as the armor inserts are very easy to take in and out of their internal pouches. The shirts are available in either white or black and in sizes ranging from extra small to 4XL.
My only minor complaint about the setup is the armor panels’ ripstop edge sometimes snags on the material of the shirt which makes some noise. It’s not too loud or noticeable, and it only happens during certain movements, but it would be preferable if it was as quiet as wearing a normal piece of apparel.
The Armor
The armor panels that come with Premier Body Armor’s shirts are designed to protect the cardiac box while being as concealable as possible, so all have dimensions of 7.75 inches by 12.75 inches and a thickness of a mere 0.22 inches. They have American-made para-aramid ballistic cores, so they’re somewhat flexible, and they feature a ripstop wrap to protect them from moisture. That last point is important since the armor has to sit against your potentially sweaty torso all day. If that fails to protect them, they feature a 5-year warranty too.
It’s important to note that while the t-shirt’s armor panels are “tested to meet the NIJ ballistic standards for Level IIIA”, they are not officially rated by the NIJ.
That matters to some people more than others, but if you want to learn more about body armor and NIJ ratings you can read our level 4 plate buyer’s guide.
That said, while I trust Premier Body Armor’s own published testing data, I believe in “trust, but verify” even more so I hit the range to do some verifying.
The Shooting Test
The test was simple and as scientific as I could make it with what I had on hand. That meant the Everyday Armor T-Shirt strapped to a target and a spread of relatively common handgun rounds.
One important note is that Premier tested this armor to NIJ level IIIA standards—meaning a distance of 5 meters—but I wanted to push the panels a bit harder than that. Most gunfights happen closer than 5 meters anyway, so I did my testing at about 3 meters or 10 feet.
The calibers used include .22 LR, .25 ACP, 9×18 Makarov, 9mm NATO, .45 ACP and 7.62 Tokarev, all FMJ loads. The 9×18 Makarov is standing in for .380 ACP since it’s basically just spicy .380. Also, while not a lot of criminals are running around with Tokarevs anymore, it used to be a common rumor that it could penetrate IIIA armor so I thought I’d throw it in to see how it fared against Premier’s.
To cut to the chase, the armored shirt fared very well, stopping all projectiles sent its way. It obviously had no problem handling .22 LR or .25 ACP, and 9×18 Makarov barely even made a perceptible backface deformation. Slightly larger dents were produced by .38 Special, 9mm NATO and .45 ACP, but nothing one wouldn’t be able to shake off if hit while wearing it.
As far as common handgun threats are concerned, the Everyday Armor T-Shirt beat all of them.
The only handgun bullet fired that I think the wearer really would have noticed is the 7.62 Tokarev. It did successfully stop it, but it left a pretty big impression on the other side. That’s because the 7.62 Tokarev is really pushing the velocities that IIIA armor can handle, although it clearly can handle it. That’s even when considering that my test shot was a borderline edge hit.
Finally, mostly for fun and to give an already shot-up armor panel a warrior’s death, I finished it off with a round of 12-gauge 00 buckshot. While it was definitely toast after that, the armor successfully prevented the shot from penetrating too. An impressive feat for a .22-inch-thick panel. That said, given the backface deformation, I would highly recommend not taking a 12-gauge to the chest at 10 feet whether you’re wearing this armor or not.
How Does It Wear?
They call it the Everyday Armor T-Shirt, but let’s be honest, you wouldn’t actually want to wear it every day. It’s very comfortable, about as comfortable as wearing any sort of armor can be in my estimation, but it’s still wearing armor. In the end, not having armor panels strapped to you will always be more comfortable than the opposite.
The same thing can be said about carrying a gun, however, and it’s up to you to decide how much physical comfort you’re willing to sacrifice for protection and peace of mind. Myself? Enough to carry a gun every day, but not enough to wear body armor every day. That said, I live in Iowa, and circumstances around the country vary wildly. Ultimately, however, I like having the Everyday Armor T-Shirt available to me as an option. One never knows when or how their circumstances regarding security might change, and having good IIIA armor that can easily be hidden under an overshirt might really come in handy someday. I have an old traditional-style IIIA vest as well, and it’s far less comfortable to wear and much harder to casually conceal in everyday attire.
Whether concealable body armor is something that you think you’d wear every day or it’s just something you’d like to have for just in case, the Everyday Armor T-Shirt is worth looking at.
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