Barefoot Man is a fascinating project which encourages sportsmen to connect with themselves and the world around them in a lighter and more natural way. The project began in 2009 as the Warwick Rowers naked calendar, and their stunning new 2024 calendar has men just as naked!

It all started with male student rowers posing nude to challenge homophobia in sport. We've featured their naked bodies on OutUK for quite a few years now as their annual calendar is one of the most popular of the Christmas fundraisers. We're glad these very fit sportsman want to show off their fantastic physique because there's a serious message behind their nudity. They raise money for Barefoot Sport Allies, a charity that helps to make sport more inclusive and open a global, mindful conversation with everyone affected by male mental health.

What used to be called the Warwick Rowers changed to Worldwide Roar so those from a broader range of sporting backgrounds could come together and share new ways to experience life as men. They wanted sportsmen everywhere to feel that they can truly be a part of the project and so they found a new more inclusive name. Now they've widened their search even more with a further change of name to Barefoot Man for this their fourteenth annual calendar.

The first calendar released by Warwick Rowers only aimed to raise funds for the university boat club. The shoot took place in one day, in the freezing cold, and it raised a lowly £300. Now it raises a six-figure sum every year and the calendar goes to around 80 countries, with their viral messaging reach about twice that. They have won a large number of awards for excellence, innovation and social impact, including twice being voted the UK Charity Calendar of the Year.

In our own OutUK exclusive interview we've been talking with Photographer and Founder Angus Malcom:

So Angus, the first calendar came out in 2009. How did the project start?
Gosh. Well I've thought about this a lot over the years, because I think sometimes we start things, particularly creative things, and we don't really know where they come from when we start them. My photography came from a big bang moment in my puberty adolescence, where I'm in a changing room at school. This very hot guy takes his clothes off in front of me, and I realized that I'm really loving this moment.

I grew up in a very conservative place, Northern Ireland. And so the idea that I would get to see somebody sexually attractive taking their clothes off in front of me was really a way of telling me that my sexual identity was being cancelled or had been cancelled. I could not say to the guy, "Oh, that's really fun. I'm loving this," because first of all, he might kill me... and secondly, everybody would then know my shameful secret. So there was a question over consent in that moment.

To bring it up to 2009, I think that when I wanted to start photographing men, it was to go back to that moment in a healthier way. Our first sexual awakening comes with so much baggage that we spend the rest of our lives trying to unpack it and trying to get rid of it.

Calendar sales fund Sport Allies, a UK registered charity set up in 2014 and dedicated to making sport more inclusive. The charity has just rebranded as Barefoot Sport Allies to celebrate the calendar's role in its development. Their Mission is to promote sport, and especially team sport, as an inclusive and supportive route to personal growth for everyone.

Their work is informed by the following core principles:

• Without inclusivity, there can never be equality of opportunity.
• Everyone should have the opportunity to explore their talent and turn it into personal success and a positive contribution to society.
• Any group of people, whether a corporate board or a sports team, will become stronger by recruiting from the entire pool of talent.
• Team sport offers unique opportunities for promoting diversity and enabling personal growth.

They believe sport offers far more than just physical benefit. Sport enables young people to explore their potential, make life-long friends and develop a wide range of skills that are applicable in the wider world. They believe that everyone should have access to sport and the opportunities it provides, and that sport should play a central role in enabling a more diverse and inclusive world. Their Vision is a world where sport is a leader in promoting diversity.

Their work and particularly their use of male nudity has long interested academics. They have watched a simple naked calendar evolve into a health promotion and human rights project that enables participating sportsmen to confront their privilege, develop healthier masculinities and become active advocates for inclusion.

Angus thinks all men should take responsibility:
It's easy for men to blame problems like misogyny, homophobia, racism, abusive pornography and male violence against women on by a few bad guys. The reality is that men who aren't actively working to change things are complicit in maintaining a world where bad guy behaviour is still ok.

It is not about where you put your penis, or what colour it is, or how politely and consensually you introduce it to the world. The clue is that you have one. Men live in and help to maintain a system that has benefitted them at the expense of others. It is only by acknowledging our privilege as men and the damaged version of masculinity that has poisoned the lives of many, including men themselves, that we can escape this legacy. We can find our own freedom by helping others to find theirs. As allies.

Angus, The environments and poses that you choose for the guys can get intimate. They are naked and more often than not touching, embracing or holding one another.
Yes. I think quite naturally, this is quite a strange situation for them to be put in. In the early days of the project, the guys would say, "Oh yeah, but we're used to this because we're naked in the changing room all the time. And so this is no different." And that was what we used to say in our films. We've evolved from there, because what we've understood is that there are so many rules in the straight male sports world around nudity. The fact that someone might be briefly naked in the changing room is very different from the way in which guys model in our shoots.

And it's one of the reasons why we've now been able to evolve from being a fundraising project that sells imagery of beautiful men naked to raise funds, to actually being a project that enables the men who take part to go on a journey that is transformative. There is an element of nerves with some guys, but they also have to confront all these unspoken rules that they were not aware of around how intimate they could be with each other. Historically there was no sexual tension, but now that we've mixed things up we've got a lot more gay men taking part alongside straight men. I think that's part of admitting that sexuality runs through male culture, even when it's not supposedly there.

I think male intimacy is very important. It's a very important part of our project. And the problem is male intimacy has been associated with homosexuality for way too long. And it's time we change that because all men should be intimate with each other. And the project has made me learn a lot about this. Not long ago, I was listening to a podcast. It's a French one and I can't name it, but basically it was this teacher and she did this empirical study on men from the age of four or five years old until they get to 25. Basically there's a time at the age of 13 or 14, when they start hitting puberty, they stop being intimate with their friends. They do all sorts of things together and they're actually quite physical with one another.

Then by the age of 13, 14, people start telling them that it's not okay. And they feel like they have to prove that they're not gay because being close to your friends is associated with homosexuality. Then they're being told that they have to be more physical with one another, and they start fighting and doing all sorts of things that they hadn't done before. Actually intimacy is healing. Intimacy is a very much part of having a good mental health.

More Pictures and More of our Interview about Barefoot Man

You can purchase a Calendar direct from the Barefoot Man Website for just £21.99. This year as a special promotion you can add two calendars to your basket and you will only pay for one. On the site you'll also find loads of other items including photo sets, film downloads, signed limited editions and picture profiles of some the guys.

A proportion of every sale is donated to Barefoot Sport Allies, a charity that aims to combat homophobia in team sports and to promote an inclusive and supportive route to personal growth for everyone.

See the Barefoot Sport Allies website: sportallies.org
Tweet Sport Allies @SportAllies: twitter.com/SportAllies
Find Sport Allies on Facebook here: facebook.com/SportAlliesCharity