There are a lot of unlockable armor sets in Halo 4, so you’ll probably need to know how to equip these armors after you unlock them.
To equip armor that you have unlocked, press the Start button and go down to Customize. Go over to Spartan Armor and hit A, which will bring you to your list of unlocked armor so far.
If you’re trying to figure out how to apply a skin to a piece of armor, you need to understand that skins are tied to specific armor sets. You can’t just apply a skin to any armor, that skin has to be unlocked for the specific armor.
You’ll notice skins on armor because it’s named like this: Recon SURG. This means it is the Recon Armor, with the SURG skin attached.
Some armor sets don’t have any skins tied to it.