Feyachi Magnetic Quick Release Tactical Vest

by moondog on October 18, 2024 with No Comments

Putting on a Plate Carrier (PC) tactical vest can be easy or moderately challenging to the user who customized its setup. But for anyone else, that PC can be a puzzle of buckles, straps, and velcro, that can vary widely by brand and by each user’s customization. Easy enough if the user is conscious but good luck if that user is knocked out or cognitively incapacitated.

Feyachi came up with what may be the easiest way to take off a PC: magnetic buckles. They came up with a unique system that connects the shoulder straps and cummerbund to the front plate that easily disconnects using a cable actuated magnetic buckles. These buckles snap into locking position mechanically. Pulling the cables, moves the magnets which unlock the buckles. This disconnect process is nearly instantaneous and while not always 100%, disconnects enough of the 4 buckles to easily pull off the PC vest of the user.

But that does bring up the question, what’s the use case for this super fast disconnect? Is it in case of a vehicle rollover? Perhaps if the PC is on fire? Or in the case of a water accident, to ditch the heavy PC? Feyachi doesn’t say and if I was their lawyer I probably wouldn’t want them to claim what it does for liability reasons.

For casual PC users such as airsofters who use a vest on a regular basis, having a quick release between skirmish games is pleasant, though most airsoft vests have pretty easy buckle systems. As a PC it is light duty vest that is cheap at around $120.

For professionals the vest feels a bit bit too lightly reinforced and the included pouches are cheaply constructed. The stitching looked budget, with loose thread ends around the velcro, and no gusseting reinforcement in critical straps. Surprisingly the vest’s internal plate pockets have pretty good with extra straps to hold plates in place. The biggest gripe expressed by my tester was that the cummerbund does not have stretch panels, so you have to suck in hard to attach the buckles and put on the vest.

One issue in the design is that he quick release cables are exposed and could snag in real battle situations. The quick release actuator is positioned directly in the center of the chest for easy access but does mean that you can’t position an Admin panel or equipment that would cover it. The vest’s impact padding has air flow channels but the foam pads are a bit too thin to allow for uniform fabric not to fill them in.

This PC vest isn’t bad but it has it’s trade-offs. For tactiCOOL types, having a unique whizz bang bit of of unique gear to flex is its own reward.