About
His official tagline is "Inspiring men to live better lives," a polished mission statement for a digital brand built on impeccable aesthetics and aspirational luxury. For his hundreds of thousands of followers, Rok Krulec, the Slovenian tastemaker known professionally as Rok Goes Around, is a guide to a world of five-star resorts, high-horology timepieces, and the driver's seats of supercars. But behind the sun-drenched Instagram grid lies a story of strategic evolution, calculated business decisions, and a controversial late-2023 relocation to the United Arab Emirates that has placed him at the center of a debate about the new geography of influencer power.
Rok Goes Around: History and Growth
Born on February 2, 1997, in Maribor, Slovenia, Rok Krulec, who stands 188 cm (6'2"), began his career far from the opulence of his current Dubai base. After studying Marketing Communication and PR at the University of Maribor, he took a conventional role at a local marketing agency. His influencer career started not as a grand ambition but as a side project in 2017, a platform to explore his interest in men's fashion.
The initial traction was modest, but by 2019, his distinctive style began to capture attention. That year marked a critical turning point when he was recognized with the "Breakthrough Fashion Blogger of the Year" award at the Slovenian Fashion Awards. Buoyed by this success, Krulec made the pivotal decision to leave his agency job in 2020 and commit to his personal brand full-time. The move paid dividends. His international profile grew, culminating in a 2021 Shorty Award nomination for "Best in Travel." By 2022, his primary platform, the @rokgoesaround Instagram account, had surpassed the one-million-follower milestone.
Rok Goes Around: Content and Style Evolution
Krulec's content archive is a clear timeline of his brand's deliberate upscaling. In his early phase (2017-2019), his focus was grounded and accessible. He showcased mid-range fashion and documented his travels primarily within Slovenia and neighboring European countries, with an aesthetic rooted in street-style photography.
The year he went full-time, 2020, marked a sharp pivot. His content elevated from accessible to aspirational, as high-end luxury brands replaced their mid-range counterparts. European cityscapes gave way to the turquoise waters of the Maldives and the lush landscapes of Bali. The photography became more polished, cinematic, and carefully curated.
His move to Dubai in late 2023 heralded the current, third era of his brand: hyper-luxury. His feed is now dominated by supercars, exclusive Dubai events, and haute couture. This phase has also seen a strategic shift in format, with a heavier emphasis on short-form video for Instagram Reels and TikTok, platforms better suited for showcasing the dynamic nature of his high-octane lifestyle.
How Rok Goes Around Makes Money
Krulec operates a multi-pronged business model typical of top-tier influencers. The primary revenue stream is high-value brand partnerships with a portfolio of blue-chip luxury names, including Emirates, Four Seasons, and Cartier. These collaborations go beyond simple sponsored posts, often involving extensive travel and content creation campaigns.
To capture a different segment of his audience, he uses the LTK (LikeToKnowIt) platform for affiliate marketing, earning commissions on sales driven by his fashion recommendations. He has also ventured into direct-to-consumer products. In 2020, he launched RGA Presets, a collection of Lightroom filters, allowing followers to replicate his signature visual style. A more ambitious project followed in 2021 with the "Otok Journal," a limited-run, high-end physical travel magazine. While analysis notes the journal was "commercially unsuccessful," it was also "critically well-received for its aesthetics," serving more as a brand-building passion project than a significant profit center.
An examination of corporate records for his sole proprietorship in both Slovenia and the UAE reveals no red flags, indicating a standard, compliant business structure for a content creator of his scale.
Rok Goes Around's Collaborations
Krulec's most frequent collaborator is his partner, Anja Paskulin (@anjapaskulin), a fellow influencer with whom he often creates couples-oriented travel and lifestyle content. Beyond his immediate circle, he holds a membership in the Professional Travel Bloggers Association (PTBA), an industry organization that provides networking and professional development opportunities, signaling a commitment to the formal craft of digital content creation.
Rok Goes Around: Public Reception & Controversies
While his audience growth has been steady, Krulec's career has not been without scrutiny. His 2023 relocation to Dubai became a flashpoint, igniting what has been termed the "Dubai Relocation Controversy." Critics and media outlets in Europe accused him of moving primarily for significant tax advantages and to operate outside the increasingly stringent disclosure regulations governing influencers within the European Union, specifically the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The sentiment was captured in a blistering quote from an anonymous peer in a Slovenian tabloid, which stated, "He's part of the new 'Instagram mafia' fleeing to Dubai for the tax breaks and looser rules. It's a bad look." The narrative painted him as part of a broader trend of creators abandoning their home markets for more favorable financial and regulatory climates.
Krulec publicly addressed the controversy by framing the move as a strategic business decision. His official reasoning cited "better opportunities, year-round sunshine for content creation, and a central travel hub." He has maintained that he remains compliant with all relevant advertising and disclosure laws applicable to his audience's jurisdictions. Alongside this primary controversy, he has faced secondary, more persistent allegations of promoting an unsustainable, hyper-consumerist lifestyle.
Despite the negative press, a key finding shows that his audience engagement rates remained high throughout the controversy, suggesting his core followers were either unconcerned by the allegations or accepting of his explanation.
Rok Goes Around Today
Rok Krulec operates from his new base in Dubai, his brand more polished and commercially focused than ever. He has navigated the most significant public controversy of his career, emerging with his core audience intact and his business model thriving in a hyper-luxury market.