Warwick Rowers to Worldwide Roar – to Barefoot Man!

For ten years we were the Warwick Rowers. A campaigning calendar featuring a team of male university rowers who set out to challenge homophobia in sporting culture in arty, humorous naked images that everybody loved.

When we produced the first Warwick Rowers calendar in 2009, we did not foresee that we would grow into a global community.  But, sixteen years later, here we are – still growing and still going strong!

When we became the Worldwide Roar in 2020, we were able to invite athletes from other sports. It allowed us to include more body types and address wider inequalities. Then in 2024 we began the next phase of our journey as Barefoot Man.

Barefoot Man is building on sixteen years of experience to developing a range of innovative tools that will empower men of all sexualities and backgrounds to explore their understanding of masculinity and their relationships with it.

Barefoot Man enables everyone who identifies as male to confront the rules they were taught as children, to take a more critical look at the culture in which they live and explore how they can make a difference to everyone in their everyday lives – as men and as allies. 

Changing How We Look at Men

Our creative team has always offered different perspectives on the male body. We will continue to do so with fresh content, fresh eyes and a longstanding ambition to support more diverse perspectives on masculinity.

We ask men to undress as a way to let go of unconscious assumptions, to re-examine how they were taught to think and to tap into a deeper, more meaningful connection with their potential as men. It is the gateway to a truly liberating experience.

Why Change Matters. For Men. For Everyone.

Many men grow up thinking that control is the route to freedom. The male mental health statistics prove that the commonly accepted rules of masculinity are not working. These rules do not work for men or for anyone else. It is time for change.

Enjoy Our History

We already offer a huge archive of films, images, books and prints from nearly fifteen years of challenging how we look at men. You can explore this archive through n our Shop, in Barefoot+ and from 2024 in the WR Museum. 

But the great content we have become known for is just the beginning.

Be Part of Our Future

Our exciting new educational programme will launch in 2024 after more than a decade in development. You can find out more about the programme and register to participate in beta development trials here

Join us!

Barefoot Man.

Rewriting masculinity. A new story for men. A new chapter for us all.

 

Our History as the Warwick Rowers and the Worldwide Roar

How we became Barefoot Man

Our goal at Barefoot Man is to develop tools so that men with different experiences of masculinity can support each other, with and without their clothes on! It is a formula we have been working on for fourteen years. From our beginnings as the Warwick Rowers naked calendar at one sports club in England in 2009, to inviting sportsmen from different sports and diverse lived experiences to join us in the Worldwide Roar, here is a brief history of our campaign for healthier versions of masculinity.

Find out more