Reddit gimmick is that its an advertising website disguised as a forum.
What it did was collect people with similar interest so they could sell their attention.
This made it easy for the fly by night T-shirt seller or latest alibaba enthusiasts selling the latest trend. Post a meme about the trend. Use a socket puppet account or wait for a comment that said “wow that’s really crazy here’s a link where you can learn more”. In this case its to a video of a channel paid to act impressed by the quality. And then link or suggest where to buy them.