Variants showing as color dots, not text - but only in new products

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

A Shopify store owner is experiencing inconsistent variant display behavior between existing and newly added t-shirt products:

The Problem:

  • Old products: Color variants display as text labels (desired behavior)
  • New products: Color variants show as a single color dot instead of text, displaying only one color despite multiple options being available

Key Details:

  • Both old and new products use the same product template
  • Store runs on a modified Dawn theme
  • The issue persists in both live view and page editor
  • New product was temporarily unpublished (not in any category) for testing

What’s Been Checked:

  • Product template settings appear identical between old and new items
  • Product editor shows variants are properly configured

The user is seeking help to understand why identical template settings are producing different variant displays, with screenshots provided showing the discrepancy in both the storefront and backend editors.

Summarized with AI on October 31. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

I sell t-shirts on my store, and link the variants to the color mockup of the shirt. These used to display as text fields in the variants block. The new tshirts I added today are showing a color dot instead - and also only one, not all the colors available. I have only made the one shirt live (but in no category) while I test it.

  • old shirts and new shirts both use the same product template

  • theme is a modified Dawn theme

So here is one of the old shirts (showing how I want, WITH the text color names):

https://aon-celtic.com/products/dublin-pub-tee-st-patricks-day-irish-pub-crawl-st-paddys-day-irish-for-a-day-mens-celtic-shirt-gift-for-him-celtic-shirt-vintage-389142525

live on the website
live on the website2216×1304 423 KB

in page editor
in page editor2980×1662 506 KB

in product page
in product page1284×1890 194 KB

Now here is how the new shirts are displaying:

https://aon-celtic.com/products/ireland-shirt-st-patricks-day-irish-pub-crawl-st-paddys-day-irish-for-a-day-womens-celtic-shirt-birthday-gift-for-her-403140014

preview page (it displayed the same when it was live too)
preview page (it displayed the same when it was live too)2368×1222 307 KB

in the page editor
in the page editor3638×1708 626 KB

in the product editor
in the product editor1968×1914 274 KB

I can’t figure out why it’s doing this. If both these shirts are using the same product template, why are they different??

Anyone able to save my sanity and figure this out??

TIA

Cari

Website: https://aon-celtic.com/