Back when the Baker tree stands first came out, a lot of guys looked at them and and saw how simple they were and decided to build their own. I worked at a power plant at the time and over lunch period a lot of guys would be in the maintenance shop building their Baker stands, Lots of those guys wound up with "baker chest and arms" from going down a tree a lot faster than they climbed up. I hunted on the ground then and I didn't consider those stands safe. Of course, that was before safety harness as well.