Minecraft wiki entry for Armor, associated text: To have any protective effect, armor must be worn by the player. A helmet, chestplate, leggings, and boots are equipped by placing them in the head, chest, legs and feet slots of the inventory next to the player's character, respectively. Armor can also be equipped by right clicking while held. In Java Edition this will only equip to an empty slot, whereas In Bedrock Edition, if the respective slot already contains a piece of armor, they are swapped, and the original armor ends up in the player's hand.