Yes, there are some half-decent ones, but ultimately, they will fail. I have the same third-party memory card as your friend, I think (twice the size as the official one, right), and I've had the data erased on me numerous times for no reason whatsoever, and I constantly have to repair damaged data. The third-party controllers are also very bad most of the time. I've tried third-party GCN controllers, and generally, there are three problems - bad sticks, bad grip, and bad shoulder buttons. They also don't take nearly as much punishment, and don't last for very long.

But then again, there is some good third-party stuff. However, it's the ones that imitate the official ones that are always horrible.