Not sure if i caught you in time. there are a couple versions of climbers. the one you are looking at is a stand up climber, which means you use your arms to pull yourself up the tree, if you have never tried this, it will get your attention the first couple of times. i have the api grandslam, it is a sitdown climber and a lot easier to get up the tree with. you can be strapped to the tree while you are climbing, makes it a little slower going up and down, but a lot safer, i don' t strap myself to the tree until i get up it. as far as the construction quality, i have not seen any lowering of the quality because the stand was made overseas.