Tomás Machuca is the founder and CEO of Fenikks, an Argentinian organization that transforms plastic waste into shin guards and distributes them to 56 under-resourced communities throughout the country.
“In Argentina, 57% of children and adolescents live below the poverty line,” Machuca told Beyond Sports after he was honored by the International Olympic Committee for his work in sports sustainability.
“It is difficult for their families to put food on the table and, even more so, to be able to provide them with the necessary elements to practice sports.”
The young football player, now 24, started the company when he was just 16 years old.
“In a training session, my shin guards broke, and there was no money left at home to buy new ones. I decided to find a way to make my own,” Machuca said.
“I took a bucket that I had lying around in the backyard, cut it with a saw, molded it with my grandmother’s hair dryer — which burned — and added a design with images of my family that I made in paint.”
Those modest, homemade shin guards would later inspire a larger goal of upcycling waste to help young athletes in need.
In the past five years alone, Fenikks has recycled more than 2,000 kilograms of plastic waste and delivered more than 5,000 pairs of shin guards to young athletes throughout Argentina.
“We work so that in every neighborhood where a child plays barefoot, we can share the importance of caring for and maintaining the cleanliness of living spaces and provide sports equipment of all kinds,” Machuca said.
A version of this article originally appeared in the 2025 Sports Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header images via Tomás Machuca
