The term 'sweatshops', also known as 'sweating' and 'sweating system', were used in the 1840's, but the definition didn't reflect on what happened and the conditions there were in workshops and instead they were referred to as designers and producers. The reason of sweatshops was to create small garments and be contracted to different small shops. Different workshops would work on a part of the garment, which means one shop for sleeves, one shop for buttons etc.

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Workers in sweatshops worked long hours with low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage; child labour laws may also be violated, but some thought because they're getting money then they don't care that much. The British government established a Select Committee of the House of Lords on the sweating system in 1889, which publicly exposed the conditions for the first time and with massive immigration into the United States, sweatshops became common in American cities on the east coast and continued treating women and children like nothing, where as Britain tried to stop it. 

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The workers had virtually no voice in management or government and many could not read or write, never mind learn English. On March 25, 1911, the most infamous sweatshop incident in the United States occurred at the Triangle Waist Company. A fire broke out at the factory, resulting in the deaths of 146 workers, most of them were young women and they couldn't get out because the locked all the exits. This incident got attention from the public and showed what the conditions were like in sweatshops. 

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Now-a-days, the United States government describes a sweatshop as an “employer that violates more than one federal or state labour law governing minimum wage and overtime, child labor, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers’ compensation, or industry regulation.” Of course, sweatshops have evolved overtime, but without knowing, it could still be happening due to mass-manufacturing and it's cheaper. That's why big brands like Nike still may use sweatshops but in second and third world countries like China, as it's cheap and they can get away with it.