Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a cheap tailor, selling off-the-peg clothing.

1859

18601865

1870

1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 99: springer-up a tailor who sells low priced ready made clothing, and gives starvation wages to the poor men and women who ‘make up’ for him. The clothes are said to be ‘sprung up,’ or ‘blown together’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 51/2: There are but five tailors in London who make the garb proper to costermongers; one of these is considered somewhat ‘slop,’ or as a coster called him, a ‘springer-up’.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

2. a tailor who pays his employees the lowest possible wages.

1859

18601865

1870

1859		see sense 1.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 51/2: This springer-up is blamed by some of the costermongers, who condemn him for employing women at reduced wages.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.