Part of the reason why I went with this coat rack was it's small base since we have a limited area to put it in. I was worried that such a small footprint would make it unstable, but not so! It feels very sturdy, we already have some heavier winter coats hung up, and I'm not at all worried about my three year old pulling it over as he tries to hang up his coat. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because each of the individual 'branches' or hooks rotate around the inner post. Which, I guess is a nice feature if you're looking for flexible orientation of your coat hooks, but I find it slightly annoying.