The Magazine Vest From ‘Heat’ – McCauley Would Not Be Pleased

I just finished the book Heat 2, which to me, is a long-awaited deep dive into a group of characters I love. ‘Heat’ is often well regarded for its gunplay, but beyond good cinematic ballistics, it’s a great film with deep and flawed characters. In short, I’m a fan of director Michael Mann and a huge fan of ‘Heat.’

A year ago, the Youtube channel Forgotten Weapons posted a video called Forgotten Weapons Will Rock and Roll At the Drop of a Hat. The video showed Ian and friends reenacting the bank robbery scene wearing the famed Heat vest. 

In the film, our crew of rogue-ish robbers wear these custom vests under their suits with magazines strapped to them in a range of positions. In 1995 the chest rig game was nowhere near what it is today, and this fabricated option gave McCauley and Company eight AR mags on tap for laying down fire when the robbery goes bad. 

The video is entertaining, and the vests look and run great. The guys are moving, reloading, shooting, all while carrying massive bags of cash, and the vests just work. 

At the bottom of the video, a link to the Forgotten Weapons store shows a pre-order form for two sizes of the vest they were offering, Large/Medium and XL/XXL, AKA Sizemore. I had to have one. I’m a big fan of Heat, and I’m a big fan of Forgotten Weapons. 

In fact, I’m such a fan of both that I hate writing this article.

Receiving the ‘Heat’ Vest 

The vests shipped fairly quickly and by August of last year they were in the hands of consumers. Before I got mine, I saw a thread about the vest on the Forgotten Weapons Subreddit, and someone remarked it had retention issues and was way too big.

In fact, these threads kept rolling in, and I just hoped mine would fit me. I’m six foot five inches tall and weigh 280 pounds. I wear an XXL Tall shirt, and it’s rare that something is too big for me. 

I was wrong. Their ‘Heat’ vest must be closer to a 3XL or so. I felt like a little kid wearing his dad’s clothes. The vest engulfed me and hung down nearly to mid-thigh. It was comically oversized.

On top of that, magazine retention was terrible. I couldn’t get it to work with polymer or aluminum mags at all. Just walking around would cause the magazines to fall out of their slots. 

Also the vest is made of 100% polyester. It feels cheap and someone described it as Halloween costume quality. That’s actually a good way to describe it. In the Forgotten Weapons video, their ‘Heat’ vests were clearly sized right, and retention wasn’t a problem. 

Ian commented on the thread on Reddit and seemed fairly surprised at the issues listed. He described some features the vest should have in regards to retention for the magazines. His preproduction model looked to be of a much higher quality and fit him well.

He also said there would be a fix and to email the customer support page. I did, as did many others. I was told they were working on a solution, but they weren’t proactive in keeping us up to date. Over the next year, I would email asking what was going on, and sometimes I got a reply, sometimes not. 

What Happened With the ‘Heat’ Vests? 

Forgotten Weapons obviously doesn’t have the manufacturing capability to produce these vests. They partnered with a company called Warren James, LLC to make them. I noticed Warren James were the people responding to my emails. I hadn’t heard of the company, but they printed their name on the tag. 

On their website, they list nothing more than a P.O. Box in Tennessee and then have a full address in China. Ivan from the Kommando Store described them as a “predatory” company that makes merchandise for Youtubers. They certainly don’t make gun gear. The ‘Heat’ vest was produced in China from 100% polyester, likely making it extremely cheap. 

Ian and his crew clearly got higher quality sample vests when they began their merchandising deal. From watching the video, I could see why the Forgotten Weapons crew would think they were good to go and would trust the company to produce a quality vest. I think it’s safe to say Ian got had by Warren James LLC., just like the rest of us.

As I said, I’m a big fan, and I’ve met Ian twice at SHOT. He’s always been quite kind and accommodating to a nobody gun writer.

It’s a safe bet he wasn’t very happy about the final product either.

A New Year and a New Vest

Earlier this month, I received a random package in my mail which turned out to be my replacement ‘Heat’ vest. I opened it and noticed some immediate improvements. The retention issue had been solved with huge reinforced tabs, and the vest now seemed appropriately sized. Well, appropriately sized for an average-sized person. 

I received a medium/large replacement vest. It was much too small for my large frame and I was doing the ‘Fat guy in a little coat’ dance. Its looks, size and retention are significantly improved, but too small for me.

With what I thought was peak frustration, I emailed Warren James LLC. again and explained my problem. I just wanted a refund at this point, but that was denied. 

They shipped a third vest, but it was the ‘Gen 1’ variant. Another 3XL or 4XL with the dodgy retention. I had achieved peak frustration and once again emailed the same customer service rep I had been dealing with. After explaining the problem, and providing photos, I was told that the fulfillment teamed shipped the correct ‘Heat’ vest, and the problem was now “solved.” 

A ‘Gen 2’ ‘Heat’ vest does seemingly exist and appears to solve the problems, but I’ve yet to get one that I can fully test to find out. 

With that said, the Kommando Store is now selling their own American-made, Berry-compliant rig they are offering if you too have a ‘Heat’ itch that needs scratching.