Very sturdy, and holds a lot of shoes. The top shelf is a nice height to be a drop zone for keys and purses etc. I like that the shelves are solid; my old shoe rack was slatted and that allowed dirt from the bottom of higher shoes to fall inside lower shoes. It's a bit awkward to put together until you have a couple of shelves attached to hold itself up, so make sure you have another person to help hold the sides for the first step!