Meet Zach Miko: The First “Plus Size” Male Model To Be Signed to IMG

Meet the face of IMG Models’ ‘brawn’ division: plus-size male model Zach Miko. Twenty-six-year-old Zach Miko, who is 6’6″, has a 40-inch waist, and is the face of the very first plus-size male to be signed to a major modelling agency.

IMG Models has recently launched a division dedicated to plus-sized male models such as Miko. He is the first person to be signed on the growing popularity of plus-size modeling. Reported first on Women’s Wear Daily  this new division is in fact not to be referred to as “plus sized” but rather IMG Models has created a new, more marketable term for big and tall: “brawn”. “Brawn has a body positive message. Brawn is physical strength,” said IMG president Ivan Bart. Bart has drawn the definition of the word to the masculine features of male models. He hopes that signing on Zach Miko to IMG will have the same conversation about “plus sizes” as it did with Ashley Graham. “I want every man in America to say, ‘I can do that’ when they see Zach,” Bart explained. And check out what Zach himself had to say on landing the coveted IMG contract and becoming the face of ‘Brawn’ models here. He talks about he got discovered via Instagram, thoughts on Ashley Graham and his thoughts on the term ‘brawn’.

This isn’t Miko’s first time modelling; he was previously Target’s plus-size male model for the “big and tall” section. He told PEOPLE that he has “…never understood why looking at big and tall clothing, they show me these Abercrombie & Fitch-style, really cut, really fit guys.”

To celebrate the momentous occasion, Miko went to Instagram to make the announcement: “What an honor to finally announce I have signed with @imgmodels I am so grateful and humbled.”

We can’t wait to see what more comes of this new shift in the industry. 2016 is most certainly looking like the year that everything comes to a real turning point, from body positivity, gender fluidity and beauty definitions being broken – there’s a lot happening already and we’re still only in the first quarter! What are your thoughts on the term ‘brawn’? The first ‘plus-size’ male model? And his traction in the industry – yay or nay? Let us know! Get to know Zach a little more below;