Catbacks and headers - does the name matter?

I've been looking around and the other day, the guy at the exhaust shop told me that for headers and catbacks, it doesn't matter if it's brand name or not. He said a majority of them are all made of T304, and you're just going to be paying more for the name.

Is there any truth to this?

OBX and the brandless eBay ones are all the same, in regards to Corolla's.

My mech told me pretty well the same too, that brandless eBay cans are generally the same as Apexi cans and stuff, you're only paying for the name. I imagine they are similar, but for the brandless ones to be so cheap, they probably cheap out on the products, like it could be T304 steel, but really poor quality, or poor welds, or something of the sort.

I am happy with my Megan Racing muffler though, and when I compared it to two of my friends cars, a 340z with dual Tanabe mufflers and an Eclipse with an Apexi muffler, they look almost identical to mine, and Megan Racing is just a step up from the eBay stuff, generally. But in the car scene all people care about is brand names, to me I'd rather have more money in my pocket with my car still being pretty well the same as other peoples.

I posted this on CCC but I'll post it here too for reference.

The main issue I found with generic brands is their fitment. A friend of mine bought a generic header for our cars and we spent time drilling the mounting holes bigger with a dremel. The one I have is branded JVT but I think they're discontinued. Fits like a glove.

Same goes for catback. Friend of mine bought generic and the pipe hits the heatshield. Had to remove the heatshield to solve the issue. I have Tsudo cat back piping, which I think they still make, with no fitment issues.

I agree with both sides, personally I'd get a custom 1 done

I bought the $74 ebay header, hits the crossmember. Easy fix, can't be mad for the price.