On the armor table on page 275, the heavy armor says
Split mail (level 1)
Half plate (level 1)
Full plate (level 2)
Do those levels mean anything?
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It means a fill plate is an item suited for a 2nd level character so GMs should be wary to hand it out before then.
And more (probably more importantly) it means a 1st level character can't craft a full plate.
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In addition to that (because otherwise the level 1s don't really mean anything, unless you want to do some sort of zero-level "call to adventure" session), it's also used for starting treasure past 1st level. If a 2nd level character dies, and then the player brings in a new character, and that character want's half plate, that counts as their 1st level item. Likewise for Full plate counting as a second level item, if a character comes in at levels 3-6.
Crafting too - crafter level >= Item level p534