Not completely sure about blackhawk or Maxpedition. I got an Eberlestock and although I think it's based in Idaho, it is manufactured in Viet Nam, but it's one of the highest quality packs I own, incredibly durable and over the top solid construction!
I honestly don't care if a pack is made by so and so, not a brand whore, but when it comes to packs I may choose the name that has a long solid history of good design, durability, able to carry the weight of heavy loads w/o ripping. I've seen cordura based packs that are solid material but the stitching was horrible and just ripped.
For me regardless where it's made, I look for strength, durability, solid design, and great customer service. I do own a few old surplus packs: $20 alice pack, $10 surplus swiss mountain pack from Sportsmans guide, and a $20 Israeli knock off duffel bag off of CTD. Old cheap but incredibly rugged, and I usually just throw a bunch of filled ammo cans in them to take to the range out in the desert, toss em around and beat them to hell and they are the ones I use all the time b/c I know they will stand up to the abuse! I got an old-beat-to-hell-back-in-the-alice clip days LBT Jump pack that is faded to nothing and still is solid as a rock.
So what I guess I'm saying is that if the company has a good reputation for quality products, use em. Maxpedition is relatively new but I beleive they have solid quality in their products as does Condor. Tell your friend to have fun being a mall ninja with all his "tac" stuff.
