How do I link color ways that are separate products?

Linking colourways that live as separate products in Volume, using the custom metafields the theme reads.

If each colour of a garment is its own Shopify product, Volume's Linked products block puts a row of swatches on the product page that jumps between them.

It is driven entirely by metafields, and the keys are fixed — the theme reads these exact ones and nothing else.

1

Create one metafield

Under Settings → Metafields and metaobjects → Products → Add definition, create Namespace and key custom.linked_products, type Product → List of products.

That is all the block needs. Two more are optional and only change what the swatch looks like: custom.linked_color (type Color) and custom.linked_image (type File).

2

Fill it in on every product in the group

Each product needs its own list pointing at the rest of the group — including itself, so it renders as the selected swatch.

This is the step people skip. If product A lists B and C but B lists nobody, the swatch row disappears the moment a customer lands on B.

3

Add the block

In Customize, open the product template, and inside the Product overview section click Add block → Linked products. It has an optional Heading if you want a label such as “More colours” above the row.

Why the swatches show product photos instead of colours

That is the fallback, not a bug. For each linked product the theme looks for custom.linked_image first, then custom.linked_color, and if neither is filled it falls back to that product's featured image. So a group with no colour or image metafields still works — it just shows cropped photos.

Fill custom.linked_color on every product in the group to get solid chips instead. If both metafields are filled on the same product, the image wins.

Why the swatches show on the product page but not on collection cards

Two separate switches control the card version, and both have to be on:

• Theme settings → Product card → Pills must be Linked products or Both. The default is Variants, which shows variant swatches only.
• In the section holding the cards, Desktop product options and linked products and Mobile product options and linked products must be Enable (or Enable on hover) rather than Disable.

Styling for the row lives in Theme settings → Variant picker → Linked products: Size, Mobile size, Media ratio, Focal point and Corner radius. These apply to the product page and the collection cards alike.

Full walkthrough, including swatch ordering and the custom.custom. naming trap, in Linked Products. If your colours are variants of one product rather than separate products, use Color Swatches instead.