diff --git a/configs/encoder/vit_scratch.yaml b/configs/encoder/vit_scratch.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de0c30a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/configs/encoder/vit_scratch.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+_target_: pangaea.encoders.vit_encoder.VIT_Encoder
+encoder_weights: null
+download_url: null
+
+embed_dim: 768
+input_size: 224
+patch_size: 16
+depth: 12
+num_heads: 12
+mlp_ratio: 4
+
+input_bands: ${dataset.bands}
+
+  
+output_layers:
+  - 3
+  - 5
+  - 7
+  - 11
+
+output_dim: 768
diff --git a/pangaea/encoders/vit_encoder.py b/pangaea/encoders/vit_encoder.py
index f22e4f6..9dfce57 100644
--- a/pangaea/encoders/vit_encoder.py
+++ b/pangaea/encoders/vit_encoder.py
@@ -56,8 +56,9 @@ def __init__(
         )
 
         self.patch_size = patch_size
+        self.in_chans = len(input_bands["optical"])
         self.patch_embed = PatchEmbed(
-            input_size, patch_size, in_chans=3, embed_dim=embed_dim
+            input_size, patch_size, in_chans=self.in_chans, embed_dim=embed_dim
         )
         num_patches = self.patch_embed.num_patches
 
@@ -113,6 +114,8 @@ def forward(self, images):
         return output
 
     def load_encoder_weights(self, logger: Logger) -> None:
+        if self.encoder_weights is None:
+            return
         pretrained_model = torch.load(self.encoder_weights, map_location="cpu")
         k = pretrained_model.keys()
         pretrained_encoder = {}
@@ -167,7 +170,7 @@ def __init__(
         )
 
         self.patch_size = patch_size
-        self.in_channels = 3
+        self.in_channels = len(input_bands["optical"])
         self.patch_embed = PatchEmbed(
             input_size, patch_size, in_chans=self.in_channels, embed_dim=embed_dim
         )
@@ -233,6 +236,8 @@ def forward(self, images):
         return output
 
     def load_encoder_weights(self, logger: Logger) -> None:
+        if self.encoder_weights is None:
+            return
         pretrained_model = torch.load(self.encoder_weights, map_location="cpu")
         k = pretrained_model.keys()
         pretrained_encoder = {}