Black Stripes is better. One, if we are going to pick a nickname off the uniform, it needs to include a color. But two, from the looks of it, there are three Black Stripes on a red uniform. Five Stripes just doesn't have much of a ring to it. Ah, well.
I'm not saying I'm done considering options here, but... The Five Stripes coincides with the 5 that show up on the crest, with each allegedly given some honorific meaning. (At least, by the PR/graphic design firm that created the crest!) So there is a latent origin to it. Juve is celebrated with the obscure "Old Lady." If they can be that and still win as much as they do then we could do a lot worse than Five Stripes.
Five Stripes would also be unique to us as I don't think anyone else uses that nickname. There are plenty of Bulls, Bears, Lions, Devils, etc. Since we already have the ubiquitous "United" moniker, I like for our nickname to stand for only us.
Looking at Gunner's list, there's a precedent for [insert color] Stripes as a nickname. There's also a precedence for [insert color] Devils - which falls in line with my preferred Red Fury, or just Fury. The Fury! Yar!!! Also, there's a team in Israel called the Green Apes, so nothing we pick can ever be quite that bad.
Do we have anyone giving us a derogatory nickname yet? In Brazil they'll often flip that to a positive and adopt as their own. The following was ripped from the Ponte Preta wiki: The club's mascot is a female monkey (Macaca) wearing Ponte Preta's home kit. It was initially intended as a derogatory term, reflecting the racism against the club (one of the first Brazilian teams to accept blacks, having been even refused participation in championships due to this) and its fans. This co-option of a derogatory term as team mascot was copied by Palmeiras fans, who adopted the pig as their mascot instead of taking offense from it, and other teams. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associação_Atlética_Ponte_Preta
It could grow on me. It's not my favorite because it just doesn't seem to roll off the tongue but it could be worse
Hello all. The Five Stripes is starting to grow on me... sorta. I'm late to this conversation but since we've got the whole historical railroad town/United thing going on has anyone rec'd "The Golden Spikes" yet?
The Whiplash As in Snidely Whiplash As in we're always trying to tie our opposition to the track As in he looks like our owner
Five Stripes makes me think of both Five Points (Marta station) and Little Five Points (cultural area). I haven't been to either in a decade, don't even know if they still exist, but I guess I ca live with it.
Did some quick research into the rail history of the city. Hoped that the various rail lines were built by 5 companies/as 5 main corridors, but, alas, it was only 4.