Come 2018, Brooklyn Rugby Club is going to the dogs and bikers. No, not on the field, it’s for the 10-year-old organization’s annual calendars.
After four years of showing its male players in humorous and sometimes tastefully and playfully nude poses, the men’s team partnered with Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue to showcase some of the adoptable pups that were saved from high-kill rural shelters down south for the men’s team’s fifth calendar outing.
“We’ve been around long enough that we’re established, and it’s time that we really try to start giving back to our community,” said Mark O’Donnell, creative director for the men’s calendar. “By helping a charity that does a lot of great work here in the city, while also having a bit of fun and, frankly, commercially, I thought a calendar of men with puppies would go down really well.”
About a dozen dogs from Badass took part in the two-day shoot in Prospect Park and Dumbo, and O’Donnell said both players and pups had a good time.
“We brought a couple extra treats to keep them on our side,” he said. “For me, the best part was seeing dogs who wouldn’t go near some of the guys at the start of the shoot, but by the end of it were face-to-face, six inches away from the players’ noses.”
For the second annual calendar for Brooklyn Rugby Club’s women’s team, Katie Mason took the helm as creative director and envisioned going a “step further creatively” after the first outing focused more on the sport and the women who play it here in New York City.
“From an intellectual standpoint and aesthetic standpoint, all those factors kind of brought us to this cool, biker-babe-with-a-twist concept,” Mason said. “We’re really trying to demonstrate that women come in many shapes and forms and embrace our differences and nuances. We embrace our femininity and masculinity in all of these things, and we wanted to take it to the next level.”
The Brooklyn Rugby Club will hold a calendar release party on Saturday at 9 p.m. at Littlefield (635 Sackett St., Brooklyn). Tickets are $20-$30 and include a calendar if bought in advance. A portion of profits from the men’s calendar will be donated to Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue. For more info, visit brooklynrugby.com or littlefieldnyc.com.
