> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://spreecommerce.org/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Product Types

> Templates for the kinds of thing you sell — so a new pair of shoes starts with the right options, categories and fields already in place.

Merchants who sell more than one kind of thing end up repeating themselves. Every pair of shoes needs Size and Colour, belongs under Footwear, and wants a Material field. Every book needs an ISBN and an author.

A product type captures that once. Creating a product from a type gives it the right option types, the right categories, the right delivery profile, and a form that asks for the fields that kind of product actually needs.

Find them under **Settings → Product types**.

## Creating a type

Click **New product type**, name it — "Footwear", "Books" — and choose what it seeds:

| Setting          | What a new product of this type gets                               |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Option types     | Its variant axes, such as Size and Colour                          |
| Categories       | Where it is filed by default                                       |
| Delivery profile | How it ships                                                       |
| Custom fields    | Which fields its edit form asks for, and which are marked required |

## A type is a template, not a rule

This is the part that decides how to think about them. A type is applied **when a product is created**. After that, the product is its own record:

* Editing the type later does not change products already made from it. Add an option type to Footwear and existing shoes are untouched.
* A product can be moved to a different type, or detached from its type, without losing anything.
* **Required** on a custom field is advice to the person filling in the form, not a rule the server enforces.

If you do want to push a type's option types and categories onto the products that already carry it, use **Apply to products**. It previews how many products will change, and only ever *adds* — it never removes what a product already has.

## Related

* [Creating Products](/docs/user/products/creating-products) — choosing a type when a product is created
* [Product Options](/docs/user/manage-products/product-options) — the option types a product type seeds
* [Custom Fields](/docs/user/settings/custom-fields) — the field definitions a type can ask for