The intersection of Hollywood and high-performance protective gear isn’t something you see every day. Last edition SHOT Show 2025 in Las Vegas, however, created an opportunity for both of these worlds to come together in a spectacular way.
Actress Jill Wagner, known for her role in the hit TV series Lioness, is stepping into a new kind of armor—one designed specifically for women. At the center of this innovation is DuPont’s newly developed and certified Kevlar® EXO™ material, a molecular-level breakthrough in woven fabric technology.
Is this a real step forward for female body armor, or just another Hollywood moment?
To find out whether this innovation will make a real difference for the women in law enforcement who have long waited for better protection, BodyArmorNews.com sat down with James Fairfield, Director of Training and Product Support at Point Blank Enterprises. As the exclusive provider of the vest worn by Jill Wagner, the company is not only redefining body armor but also setting a new standard with its first certified female-focused armor package—one that may soon bear the name Lioness in honor of its purpose-built design.
As many other body armor manufacturers, Fairfield admits that creating effective protection for women can be a struggle and takes years of preparation. Why is the Lioness project so special? According to Point Blank Enterprises, they managed to create a product where the layers of material are evenly distributed, eliminating thick spots where layers overlap, resulting in a uniformly thin and consistent armor structure.
Instead of having just two lines of stitching to join two parts, you have dozens of lines that have to overlap correctly to form the cup. That’s the newest thing,
explains Fairfield.
When visualising Point Blank’s innovative layering system, you can imagine laying out a deck of cards in a flat, overlapping pattern. Then this pattern is covered with another deck spreaded out in the opposite direction. In traditional armor, certain areas would usually have multiple layers stacking up, creating thick spots. But with this new design, those overlaps are spread out evenly, ensuring the armor maintains a uniform thickness without any bulky sections.
Regular armor designs for women often feel stiff and rigid due to the use of high molecular weight polyethylene, which, when compressed too tightly or stitched too regularly, creates a “crunchy” texture that Fairfield compares to a pizza box. To counteract this, traditional designs allow the layers to slide over each other. Manufacturers do not fully sew them together, mimicking the flexibility of fabric and simultaneously compromising the level of safety in spots on the seams. With the Point Blank’s introduction of a new tri-polymer chemical structure, the material now returns to a more fabric-like feel. It is softer, more flexible, and resembles the comfort of wearing a sweatshirt rather than a rigid protective shell. This improved design, combined with the evenly distributed layering, results in a more comfortable and concealable armor package that moves naturally with the body.
The company has now achieved certification for its Level II vests for female law enforcement officers, marking a significant milestone in bringing this new design to market. This certification from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is essential, as body armor cannot be sold to U.S. law enforcement agencies without it.
‘‘The new testing protocol requires you to make clay mannequin forms that represent the female human. So you can’t test a female vest on a man’s clay. It has to be a female-designed clay, and that’s obviously much more relative to the end user,’’ says Fairfield.
This is Only The Beginning
Ben Kennedy, DuPont and Jill Wagner at the Point Blank Enterprises display during SHOT Show 2025 in Las Vegas With the certification of Kevlar® EXO™ earlier this year, the body armor industry may be on the verge of a significant shift, especially in the female body armor sector. The new material offers a much-needed combination of reduced weight and increased flexibility, addressing an issue for female officers who for years have been struggling with armor designed primarily for men. Steve LaGanke, Global Marketing Manager at DuPont, describes this moment as the “infancy of the fiber,” predicting that even more advancements will follow. Like Fairfield, he sees the armor worn by Jill Wagner not just as a symbol of progress, but as the start of a broader transformation for female law enforcement, first responders, and military personnel.
‘’If I were to put my finger on it, I would say that female law enforcement are unwilling to compromise by wearing a male version of the armor,’’ observes LaGanke, acknowledging the progressing shift in the market. As more women join law enforcement, they create pressure on the manufacturers that becomes hard to ignore.
While the popular Lioness show and starring Jill Wagner may have helped shine a spotlight on this breakthrough, the real test of its impact will be in the lives of those who rely on body armor every day. The certification of Point Blank’s new female-focused design, combined with DuPont’s Kevlar® EXO™, signals an important shift toward better protection for women who for years served without the appropriate protection. With innovations like the Lioness package, this seems like the beginning of a bigger change.
