diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 32157f2bd..90d99dfb0 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+git:
+  depth: 150
+
 language: go
 
 sudo: required
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 850e0bac0..8b1f75eb1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ BUILD_DIR := _output
 # VERSION is derived from the current tag for HEAD plus amends. Version is used
 # to set/overide the CRIContainerdVersion variable in the verison package for
 # cri-containerd.
-VERSION := $(shell git describe --tags --dirty)
+VERSION := $(shell git describe --tags --dirty --always)
 # strip the first char of the tag if it's a `v`
 VERSION := $(VERSION:v%=%)
 TARBALL_PREFIX := cri-containerd