Could you be more specific about what you mean by "3rd party textures" (e.g. what product) and explain what is going wrong when you try to apply them? It really doesn't matter who makes the textures, by the way. I've never had a problem with applying textures to Genesis (apart from knowing you have to change the UV Set when appropriate). I'm sure your problem can be easily solved if we know exactly what it is. To be fair, Genesis was a complete mystery to me for quite a while, so I can understand you not being able to get your head around it!