diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index dfc08447b..4fda2da37 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -11,5 +11,3 @@ dill>=0.2,<0.3
 regex==2017.4.5
 pytest>=3.0.6,<4.0.0
 mock>=2.0.0,<3.0.0
-msgpack-python==0.5.4
-msgpack-numpy==0.4.1
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a1d32584f..b453ec1f4 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -194,9 +194,7 @@ def setup_package():
                 'pathlib',
                 'ujson>=1.35',
                 'dill>=0.2,<0.3',
-                'regex==2017.4.5',
-                'msgpack-python==0.5.4',
-                'msgpack-numpy==0.4.1'],
+                'regex==2017.4.5'],
             classifiers=[
                 'Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable',
                 'Environment :: Console',
diff --git a/spacy/pipeline.pyx b/spacy/pipeline.pyx
index 743f6ac85..6d14c4ca3 100644
--- a/spacy/pipeline.pyx
+++ b/spacy/pipeline.pyx
@@ -8,7 +8,9 @@ cimport numpy as np
 import cytoolz
 from collections import OrderedDict
 import ujson
-import msgpack
+
+from .util import msgpack
+from .util import msgpack_numpy
 
 from thinc.api import chain
 from thinc.v2v import Affine, SELU, Softmax
diff --git a/spacy/util.py b/spacy/util.py
index dc51e467d..04cc3c7aa 100644
--- a/spacy/util.py
+++ b/spacy/util.py
@@ -23,9 +23,10 @@ from .symbols import ORTH
 from .compat import cupy, CudaStream, path2str, basestring_, input_, unicode_
 from .compat import import_file
 
-import msgpack
-import msgpack_numpy
-msgpack_numpy.patch()
+# Import these directly from Thinc, so that we're sure we always have the
+# same version.
+from thinc.neural._classes.model import msgpack
+from thinc.neural._classes.model import msgpack_numpy
 
 
 LANGUAGES = {}
diff --git a/spacy/vectors.pyx b/spacy/vectors.pyx
index 1b265e189..30fce439c 100644
--- a/spacy/vectors.pyx
+++ b/spacy/vectors.pyx
@@ -3,9 +3,10 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 import numpy
 from collections import OrderedDict
-import msgpack
-import msgpack_numpy
-msgpack_numpy.patch()
+
+from .util import msgpack
+from .util import msgpack_numpy
+
 cimport numpy as np
 from thinc.neural.util import get_array_module
 from thinc.neural._classes.model import Model