Real products come in more than one version. Variants in Product Hub let studios keep every colour, size, or style of a product together under a single product record. They let inventory teams and stylists start pre-planning their work before a physical sample ever arrives– and connect downstream styling data back up to the master product record. Variants streamline sample work– and bridge the gap between physical-level and record-level data.

Introduction

A Variant is one specific version of a Product Record, like the light blue T-shirt in the visual below. Each Variant has a Variant Code, a Variant Name, an optional SKU, and custom properties such as Size. It's the link between the overall product design and the physical items the studio actually shoots.


	Every Variant belongs to exactly one Product Record. You can see them all on the record's Variants tab. One Product Record can have many Variants.
	Samples are the physical items related to variants. Samples cannot exist without a parent variant, but one variant can have many related samples. The relationship is bi-directional, which means they share sample-level properties.

💭 For a more in-depth explanation of entities in Creative Force and their relationships, please see our dedicated article on the subject here.

Variants Subtab

On the Product Hub page, when you select a record, there is a variant-level subtab where you can review all of a record's related variants and take action on them.

Variant Action	Description
Add Variant	Manually create a new variant to associate with the product record through a guided on-screen form. Learn more.
Edit Variant	Change the related properties for an existing variant. Variant code cannot be changed after creation.
Create Sample	Manually create a new sample to associate with the variant through a guided on-screen form.
Remove Variant	Remove the variant from being associated with the record. This is a soft-delete action. Variants cannot be removed while there are associated samples.

Creating Variants

Because of the bi-directional relationship between variants and samples, they have dependencies that closely tie them together. This means there are some cases when variants are created automatically when new samples are brought into the system.

Manual Creation

For any existing Product Record, you can manually create a new variant by going to Product Hub → Record Overview → Variants → Add New. Set any desired standard system property like Variant Code, Variant Name, SKU, Barcode, and Size, or any custom sample-level properties before saving.

💭 For a more in-depth explanation of the Product Hub Page and its UI components, please see our dedicated article on the subject here.

File Import

Variants can be imported along with your product records by going to Product Hub → Create Product → From File → and then mapping a column to Variant Code

Product Code	Product Name	Category	Variant Code	Size
PC100-100	Casual Shirt	VarTest	SC100-100	Small

💭 For a more in-depth explanation of importing variants from a file, please see our dedicated article on the subject here.

Data Source Sync

Because Variants and Samples have a bi-directional relationship, how Variants are imported from the Data Source is dependent on certain settings and data columns related to Samples.

Setting	Abbreviated	Enabled Behavior
Create Sample from Import	CSI	Every imported product gets a Sample created automatically. This is how imports have always worked.
Create Default Sample	CDS	One default Sample is created for each imported product, even if there is no row defined for it on the import sheet.

Product Does NOT Yet Exist in CF

Sample Code	Code Match?	CDS	CSI	Result
❌ Empty	❌ No	—	—	Product Record created. No variant, no sample.
✅ SampleX	❌ No	—	—	Product + VariantX created.
❌ Empty	✅ Yes	✅ On	✅ On	Product created + default sample created.
❌ Empty	✅ Yes	❌ Off	✅ On	Product created. No samples at all.
✅ SampleX	✅ Yes	❌ Off	✅ On	Product + VariantX + SampleX all created.
✅ SampleX	✅ Yes	❌ Off	❌ Off	Product + VariantX created. SampleX NOT created.

Product Does Exist in CF Already

Scenario	Result
Sample Code already exists on the Product	Nothing new created — system recognizes it already exists.
Sample Code does NOT yet exist on the Product	New VariantX is created and mapped to the new sampleCode.

💭 For a more in-depth explanation of Importing from a Data Source, please see our dedicated article on the subject here.

Property Sync Mode

Since Variants and Samples are closely tied together, they share Sample-level properties. However, the exact nature of how the values of these properties behave in relation to each other is controlled by its Sync Mode setting.

When creating a new property, you are able to select between three sync options. Each option carries different logic for how values should be treated when writing to Variants and Samples.

Sync Mode	Logic Description
Inherited	The Variant owns the value. Each Sample linked to that record shows a read-only copy of it.
Allow Overwrite	The Variant supplies the value, but users can still edit it on the Sample.
Sample Only	The value belongs to the Sample alone. It does not show as a property on the Variant itself.

💭 For a more in-depth explanation of Property Sync Settings, please see our dedicated article on the subject here.

Variant Overview