Minecraft wiki entry for Things_not_to_do, associated text: If you wear armor that has Curse of Binding, the only way to remove the armor is to die (if not playing on Hardcore) or to let the armor run out of durability. Even if you don't expect to remove the armor, you may later acquire an enchanted book that you want to add to your armor. Doing anything to a piece of armor on an anvil requires that you temporarily remove the armor. You may also want to wear different armor with different enchantments depending on what you are doing. For example, you may normally wear armor with Protection but want to use Fire Protection when exploring in the Nether. You cannot put both Protection and Fire Protection on the same item, so you need multiple pairs of boots. Also, you cannot put both Depth Strider and Frost Walker on boots. If you wear a chestplate with Curse of Binding, you also cannot use elytra.