Brand sustainability comes down to two things:  relevance and differentiation.  Something either affects a brand's relevance; is it meaningful to my life today? And its differentiation; is it unique and can I identify that uniqueness? Everything falls into one of those two buckets as it relates to brand.  The goal is to be high on both. 

There are

Brand positioning boils down to one thing: Differentiation. And one way to be different is by aligning with a unique set of values. AND1 did this, aligning with the values of streetball: attitude and creativity. Nike, meanwhile, aligned with elitism and rigidity.