The Story
One pair of shoes at a time.
Tichyque Musaka was born in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He lost his parents young. His mother Fifi was the one who held things together — long after she was gone, her name still does.
Chapter one
Kinshasa
Tichyque came to the United States at thirteen years old. He could not read, write, or speak English. He stood seven feet tall by the time he was sixteen, and a basketball was the only language that worked across every room he walked into.
He went on to play college basketball — Gulf Coast State, then Stephen F. Austin. Every summer, every break, he found a way back to Kinshasa. The kids there knew him as the one who’d made it out. He didn’t want them looking up to him. He wanted them to have what he didn’t: shoes that fit, a court to play on, an adult who showed up.
Chapter two
The shoes
For years it was informal. Tichyque would mention to a teammate that he was flying home, and shoes would appear at his door. He’d pack what he could carry — a duffel, a roller, a backpack stuffed past zipping. He’d hand them out in the neighborhoods he came from. He’d watch a kid lace up a pair of size 14s with eyes that didn’t care about size.
It worked because he was doing it himself. It also stayed small because he was doing it himself. By the time the family started asking him what he’d need to do more, he had a closet full of shoes and a wait list of kids back home.
Chapter three
Nick’s capstone
Nick Condray is Tichyque’s brother. He’s a senior at Trinity School of Durham & Chapel Hill — soccer captain, the kind of kid who pulls the group together. For his senior capstone, he decided to make his brother’s side project official.
Starting in May 2026, Nick is running shoe drives at schools across the Triangle. Basketball shoes are the focus, but soccer cleats and any gently used athletic shoes get a home in the same duffel. The collection runs through the school year and culminates in summer 2027, when Tichyque hosts a sports camp in Kinshasa and every kid walks out wearing a pair.
For Fifi
“She didn’t live to see me play. But every kid I hand a pair to — that’s for her.”
— Tichyque