Shine those shoes...

For those of you who may not know, shoe shining is apparently a dying art - like proper shaving, and old-timey large-front-wheel bicycles. So I'm the type of guy who likes a stylish black dress shoe to wear just about every day to work. So I read in many a places that one should take care of his shoes and thus prolong their life.
Since all of my previous shoes have fallen apart or the leather has cracked, I wanted to believe this to save some money and keep rocking my awesome shoes. So I did what anyone would do, step two - to the Internet!

This is a peculiar issue as there seems to be a mishmosh of conflicting procedures on the net. There are several issues the net seems to be in agreement on:

1) Use shoe trees - they flatten and dry out your kicks

2) EZ shine or instant shine products destroy the shoe over time

3) Rotating you shoes will extend their life. (This is stupid because that is just wearing them less.)

4) High quality shoes, when properly care for, can last you 5+ years with resoling and what not. Unfortunately, "High quality" means handmade in the UK or Italy and starts at around $350. The argument goes that 350/5 is less than 100 a year for the crappy Kenneth Cole's I'm currently wearing.

What they don't agree on is just how to "properly care for" your shoes. Some say you need to clean, condition, polish, and then protect your shoes - EVERY WEEK! That is way to much work for me! Other's say just a clean and polish - but then my OCD kicks in - what do you clean it with? What is the best for polishing? What about mink oil- does that really condition the leather or just create a mess? Some people say Kiwi is good, others say it is crap - but where do you buy this stuff from? I don't need a whole kit, because I already have most of the stuff, but mine still cracked - was it just crappy shoes to begin with?

Well, I have a new pair of Johnston & Murphy shoes on their way to my apartment - so I'm sure this will not be the end of this tirade!