The story
Tichyque Musaka was born in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He lost his parents young. This drive carries his mother’s name: Fifi.
I
Tichyque came to the United States at thirteen to play basketball, speaking no English. Basketball was the one language that worked in every room he walked into.
He went on to play college basketball, first at Gulf Coast State, where he earned his associate’s degree, then at Stephen F. Austin. He still goes back to Kinshasa every summer: the city where he was born, and where Fifi raised him.
II
The idea is simple. Kids in the United States outgrow athletic shoes long before the shoes are worn out. Closets, garages, and locker rooms fill up with pairs that still have plenty of life in them.
Fifi’s Soles connects the two: the pairs that sit unused here, and kids in Kinshasa who can put them to use. Basketball is where it starts, because basketball is where Tichyque’s story starts.
III
Nick Condray is Tichyque’s younger brother, and a senior at Trinity School of Durham & Chapel Hill. For his senior capstone, running from May 2026 to May 2027, he is turning the idea into an organized drive: drop bins, school drives, pickups, sorting, and packing.
Basketball shoes are the focus. Soccer cleats and other gently used athletic shoes are welcome too, so more kids get a pair.
IV
The year ends in Kinshasa. In summer 2027, Tichyque carries the year’s shoes home and hands them out himself, pair by pair, to the kids who come to play at a sports camp there.
The goal: every kid leaves in a pair that fits. Every pair is given in Fifi’s name.
For Fifi
“She didn’t live to see me play. But every kid I hand a pair to — that’s for her.”